JjlfjW 



•••■■"-'•■* 'vr 



-t •■.;■'"■ 







































^ 







































VIEW OF THE ACTION 



OF THE 



FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, 



IN 



BEHALF OF SLAVERY. 



BY WILLIAM JAY. 



" We, the People of the United States, do ordain and establish this 
Constitution." — Federal Constitution. 



UTICA: 

PUBLISHED BY J. C JACKSON, 

FOR THE N. Y. S. ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY. 

1844. 



•J- 






Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1839, by 
WILLIAM JAY, 
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for tin- 
Southern District of New York. 



R. W. Roberts, Printer, 53 Genesee Street, Utica. 



VIEW, &c. 



Our Fathers in forming the Federal Constitution entered 
into a guilty compromise on the subject of Slavery, and 
heavily is their sin now visited upon their children. By that 
instrument, the continuance of the African slave-trade was 
guaranteed for twenty years ; — a larger proportional repre- 
sentation in Congress, and a larger vote in the election of the 
Executive, was accorded to the slave-holding, than to the 
other States : — the power of the nation was pledged to keep 
the slave in subjection ; and should he ever escape from his 
fetters, his master was authorized to pursue and to seize 
him, in any and every of the sovereign States, composing 
our wide-spread confederacy. 

We are not about to exhibit the corrupting influence of 
this compact on the religious sympathies and sentiments of 
our countrymen, in regard to slavery ; nor is it our present 
purpose to trace the retributive justice of Heaven in that 
recklessness of human life, and in that contempt of human 
and divine obligations, which are hurrying on the slave 
States to anarchy and barbarism ; or in the eagerness so 
generally exhibited by our northcraypolitieians and mer- 
chants, to baiter the constitutional iBs of themselves and 
their fellow-citizens, for the votes and me trade of the South.* 

We propose simply to take a view of the action of the Fed- 



Bcfore this language is condemned as harsh and exaggerated, we beg 
the reader to recall some of the prominent events of the last few years, con- 
nected with this subject: — the Lynch clubs and cruel inflictions of the 
South, — the sacking of the Charleston post-office, — the wholesale and un- 
punished murders at Vicksburg, — and the frequent burnings alive of negroes, 
and in particular, of Mcintosh, taken by the citizens of St. Louis from the 
prison, chained to a tree, and consumed by a slow fire — and the advice of 
Judge Lawless to the grand jury, not to notice the diabolical atrocity, because 
it was in fact, the act of the community ! As to the North, we point in our 
justification, to the innumerable mobs excited by politicians, against the 
friends of emancipation, — the various attempts made by the state authori- 
ties to propitiate the South, by a surrender of the freedom of speech, and of 
the press, — to the zeal of the merchants in our seaports, in getting up anti- 
abolition meetings, — to the conflagration of Pennsylvania Hall, and to the 
martyrdom of Lovejoy. In truth, our whole land is strewed with monuments 
of the wickedness and tyranny of slavery — monuments, which declare in no 
doubtful language, that our great national sin is not unheeded by Hi,vi, to. 
whom vengeance belongeth. 



4 FEDERAL RATIO. 

eral Government in behalf of slavery, — a subject that has 
yet been but partially investigated ; and we flatter ourselves, 
that in the course of our inquiries, we shall develope facts, 
which, with some at least of our readers, will possess the 
merit of novelty. These facts for the most part, derive their 
origin from 

The Federal Ratio of Representation. 

The Constitution provides that the members of the Lower 
House of Congress shall be proportioned to the free inhabit- 
ants of the States they represent, except that in each State, 
three-fifths of the slave population shall be for this purpose 
considered as free inhabitants. In other words, every five 
slaves are to be counted as three white persons. For ex- 
ample, if by law every 60,000 free inhabitants may elect a 
representative, a district containing 45,000 whites and 25,- 
000 slaves, becomes by the federal ratio entitled to a mem- 
ber. This stipulation in the Constitution *has from the be- 
ginning given the slaveholders an undue weight in the na- 
tional councils. A few instances will illustrate its practical 
effect.* The whole number of the House of Representa- 

Note by J. C. Jackson. 

* At the time Judge Jay published his latest edition of the " View,'' the re- 
lative position of the North and South in Congress was different from what it 
is now. We think it best to let the text stand as it is, and insert in the form 
of a note the alterationsjajuch the last census and the apportionment law of 
1341, render it neressf^^^ make. 

The whole number oHH^nvsentativcs in Congress is 27."). Of these, the 
House contains 223, sent from 26 Stales ; divided equally between the North 
and the South. At the last census, the Blaveholding States had a free pop- 
ulatibn of 4,740,427, and a representation in the House under the new law 
of 88 members; while the free States with a population of 9,835,571 have 
only 13.5 members in the House. One representative is allowed to 70,G80 
inhabitants, and in cases when the fraction exceeds 38,000, in a. State, it 
draws an additional member. By this operation, Rhode Island, South Car- 
olina, Alabama, Tennessee, Indiana, and Illinois, each gain a member. 

Were the slaves not enumerated, the slave States would have but 67 mem- 
bers ; their number of slave Representatives is therefore 21. If free popu- 
lation were the basis of representation in the Federal Government, as it is in 
the majority of the States, the slave States would have 

In the Senate, 13 members. 

In the House, 67 

Electoral votes for President, 80 

They have In the Senate, 26 members. 

In the House, 88 

Electoral votes for President, 114 

The operation of this principle is seen in the estimate below : 

Ohio with a population of 1,519,465, has 21 members; while Virginia 



FEDERAL RATIO. 5 

tives is at present 242 ; sent from 26 States. Of these, the 
following are slave States, viz : — Delaware, Maryland, Vir- 
ginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, 
Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri, and 
Arkansas. These States with a free population of 3,S23,3S9, 
have 100 members ; while the free States with a free popu- 
lation nearly double, viz. 7,003,451, have only 142 members. 
One representative is at present allowed to 47,700 inhabit- 
ants. Now were the slaves omitted in the enumeration, the 
slave States would have only 75 members. Hence it follows, 
that at the present moment, the slaveholding interest has a 
representation of TWENTY-FIVE members in addition to 
the fair and equal representation of the free inhabitants. 
There is certainly no good reason why the owners of human 
chattels, should by the fundamental law of a Republic, have 
greater privileges awarded to them than to the holders of 
any other kind of property whatever. But such is the com- 
pact ; we seek not to change or violate it, but only to explain 
its operation. 

Each State has as many votes for President as it has mem- 
bers of Congress. The rule of representation in the Lower 
House has 1 already been explained ; in the Senate it is differ- 
ent : and each State, whatever be its population, has two 
Senators, and no more. The free population of the slave 
States, as already stated, is /talf that of the others ; but their 
nmnber being equal, their representation in the Senate is also 
equal. 

If free population were the principle*bf representation in 
the Federal Government, as it is with scarcely an exception 
in all the States, the slave States would have 

In the Senate, 13 members. 

In the House, 75 

Electoral votes for President, 88 

They have In the Senate, 26 members. 

In the House, 100 

Electoral votes for President, 126 

with a free white population of 728,659, less than half of that of Ohio, has 
15 members; when on the principle of equal representation she would bo 
entitled to but 10 members. Pennsylvania has 26 electoral votes ; while 
South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Kentucky, 
with a free population of only 263,032 more than Pennsylvania, have 52 
electoral votes. 



6 INFLUENCE IN CONGRESS. 

Here we find the secret of the power of the South, and of 
the obsequiousness of the North. Ohio, with a population 
of 947,000, has 19 members ; while Virginia, with a free 
population of 200,000, less, -has two members more. Take 
another example. Pennsylvania has 30 electoral votes ; the 
States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, 
Louisiana, and Kentucky, with an aggregate free population 
of 189,791 less than Pennsylvania, have 53 electoral votes ! 

It cannot be supposed that this vast and most unequal 
representation and consequent political power, will be un- 
employed by its possessors. On the contrary, the slavehold- 
ers in Congress have uniformly succeeded in effecting their 
objects, when united among themselves. In 1836, this slave 
power in Congress was adroitly turned to pecuniary profit. 
The Surplus Revenue remaining in the Treasury on the 1st 
of January, 1837, was to be distributed, and the rule of dis- 
tribution became a question. The income, it is true, had 
been derived chiefly from the industry and enterprise of the 
North ; but the South insisted, and with her usual success, 
that instead of dividing the money according to population, 
it should be apportioned among the States according to their 
electoral votes. By this rule, the slave States, notwithstanding 
their inferiority in population, would share alike with the 
free, so far as regarded the number of their Senators ; and 
with regard to their representatives, they would secure an 
apportionment of money on account of three-fifths of their 
two millions of slaves. 

The sum allottedPty this gross and monstrous rule to the 
States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, 
Louisiana, and Kentucky, was $6,754,588 ; while Pennsyl- 
vania with a free population larger than that of all these six 
States together, was to receive only -^3,823,353 ; so that in 
fact the slaveholders of these States received man for man, 
just about twice as as many dollars from the national Treas- 
ury, as the hardworking citizens of Pennsylvania ! Now as 
the free States have a numerical majority of members, it is 
important to investigate the sources of the slaveholding 
influence in Congress. These may be regarded as three- 
fold ; first, their anxiety to protect and perpetuate slavery, 
renders the southern members united in whatever measures 
they consider important for this purpose, while the repre- 
sentatives from the North, having no common bond of union, 
arc divided in opinion and effort. Secondly, a slave State 
having more votes to bestow on a presidential candidate, and 
more members in Congress to support or oppose the admin- 



INTIMIDATION. 7 

istration than a free State of equal white population, is of 
course of greater consequence in the estimation of politi- 
cians ; and hence arises an influence reaching to every mea- 
sure, and weighing upon every question. The peculiar 
character of the southern gentlemen, together with their ob- 
servation of the servility of the northern politicians, have' in- 
duced them to resort, and with great success, to intimida- 
tion as a third means of influence. 

The practice adopted by the slaveholders of threatening 
on all occasions to dissolve the Union, unless they are per- 
mitted to govern it, has been too long and firmly established 
to need illustration. We will at present merely give a few 
recent instances of outrageous menaces ; and to justify what 
we have said of the servility of northern politicians, it is suf- 
ficient to observe, that these menaces were unrebuked. 

On the 18th of April, 1836, a petition against the contin- 
uance of slavery in the District of Columbia was presented 
to the House of Repi-esentatives, when Mr. Speight of 
North Carolina declared in his place, that " he had great re- 
spect for the chair as an officer of the House, and a great 
respect for him personally, and nothing hit that respect pre- 
vented him from rushing to the table and tearing that petition 
to pieces." Of course it was to be understood, that the order 
of the house and the rights of northern petitioners were re- 
spected not from any constitutional obligations, but solely 
because the speaker, himself a slaveholder, was acceptable 
to southern gentlemen. 

Mr. Hammond of South Carolina, the same session, in a 
speech, used the following language : " I warn the abolition- 
ists, ignorant, infatuated barbarians as they are, that if chance 
shall throw any of them into our hands, he may expect a 
felon's death." 

Mr. Lumpkin remarked in the Senate, (January, 1S38,) 
" If abolitionists went to Georgia, they would be caught:" 
and Mr. Preston declared in the same debate — "Let an 
abolitionist come within the borders of South Carolina, if we 
can catch him, we will try him, and notwithstanding all the 
interference of all the governments on earth, including the 
Federal Government, we will HANG him." 

It seems probable from these declarations that abolition- 
ists, in their southern travels, will meet with "barbarians" 
quite as " ignorant and infatuated" as themselves ; and also, 
that should members of Congress, by their votes, imprudent- 
ly identify themselves with abolitionists, and afterwards enter 



S PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES. 

the slave region, they could not complain of not having been 
explicitly warned that the gibbet was to be their fate. 

Such are the sources of the slaveholding influence in Con- 
gress. The following pages will exhibit many of the results 
of this influence, and the first to which the reader's attention 
is called, is 
The Obsequiousness op the Presidential Candidates. 

As slaveholders are ready to hang abolitionists when they 
can " catch" them, it is not to be supposed that they will 
elect any of the proscribed sect, President of the United 
States. Of course, it becomes important for such gentlemen 
as aspire to that honor, that their ideas on the subject of hu- 
man rights, should be adapted to the meridian of the slave 
region. 

Previous to the last presidential canvass, Mr. Van Buiien 
being a. candidate, thought it prudent to write a letter for 
publication, containing the following passage : — "I prefer 
that not only you, but all the people of the United States, 
shall now understand, that if the desire of that portion of 
them which is favorable to my election to the chief magis- 
tracy should be gratified, I must go into the presidential 
chair the inflexible and uncompromising opponent of any at- 
tempt on the part of Congress to abolish slavery in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, against the 'wishes of the slaveholding 
States." 

Mr. White was a rival candidate, and deemed it expedi- 
ent to give his pledge also, which he did in these terms : — 
" I do not believe Congress has the power to abolish slavery 
in the District of Columbia ; and if that body did possess the 
power, I think the exercise of it would be the very worst 
policy. Holding these opinions, I would act on them in any 
situation in which I could be placed, and for both reasons 
would, if called on to act, withhold my assent to any bill hav- 
ing in view such an object." 

General Harrison, a third candidate, also as we have 
understood, wrote his letter, but not having it before us can- 
not quote it. We presume, however, it was thought suffi- 
cient, since an address in his behalf from his political friends 
in Virginia, assured the public that " he is sound to the core 
on the subject of slavery." 

Mr. Webster, the fourth and last candidate, had many 
years before fully committed himself as to the power of 
Congress over slavery in the District. He gave no pledge, 
and received no vote from any slave State. 



OPPRESSION OP FREE NEGROES. £K 

Having thus seen the extent of the slaveholding power in 
Congress, and in some degree, its influence over political 
partizans, we are prepared to investigate its direct action in 
protecting and perpetuating the institution of slavery in the 
United States. The friends of that institution have always 
looked with distrust and alarm upon the free colored people, 
and have deemed it good policy to treat them with ignominy, 
and to prevent their acquisition of power and influence: 
Hence the 

Efforts of the Federal Government to oppress and 
degrade the free people of color. 

The Constitution of the United States acknowledges no 
right or disqualification founded on complexion ; but those 
who have administered it, have made the tincture of the skin, 
of far greater importance than the qualities of either the 
head or the heart. So early as 1790, Congress passed an 
act prescribing the mode in which " any alien being a white 
person," might be naturalized and admitted to the rights of 
an American citizen. 

Two years after, an act was passed for organizing the mi- 
litia, which was to consist of " each and every free, able- 
bodied white male citizen," &c. No other government on 
earth prohibits any portion of its citizens from participating 
in the national defence ; and this strange and degrading pro- 
hibition, utterly repugnant to the principles both of the Dec- 
laration of Independence and of the Constitution, marks the 
solicitude of the Federal Government to pursue the policy 
most agreeable to the slaveholders. But not content with 
this insult to colored citizens, another, and perhaps a still 
more wanton and malignant one, was offered by the Govern- 
ment in the act of 1810, organizing the Post Office Depart- 
ment. The 4th Section enacts that " no other than a free 
white person shall be employed in carrying the mail of the 
United States, either as a post-rider or driver of a carriage 
carrying the mail," under a penalty of fifty dollars. 

Any vagabond from Europe, any fugitive from our own 
prisons, may take charge of the United States mail ; but a 
native born American citizen, of unimpeachable morals, and 
with property acquired by honest industry, may not, if his 
skin be dark, guide the horses which draw the carriage in 
which a bag of newspapers is deposited ! 

Such are the insults heaped by the Federal Government 
on the colored citizens throughout the States : let us see what 
conduct it pursues towards them on its own territory, over 
which it possesses " exclusive jurisdiction." 



10 SLAVERY UNDER THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. 

In 1320, Congress passed a law authorizing the white 
citizens of the City of Washington to elect white city offi- 
cers ; thus making a white skin an indispensable qualification 
for both suffrage and office. The white officers thus elected 
by the white citizens, were specially empowered by the Na- 
tional Legislature " to prescribe the terms and conditions on 
wb.\c\\ free negroes and mulattoes may reside in the city." In 
pursuance of this grant of power, the white officers passed 
an ordinance (May 31, 1S27,) requiring all the free colored 
persons then in Washington and wishing to remain, to be 
registered ; and enacting, that if any free man with a colored 
skin should presume to play at cards, or even to be present 
while another free colored person was playing, he should be 
fined not exceeding five, dollars ; that if he should have a 
dance in his house, without permission from the white Mayor, 
he should be fined not exceeding ten dollars ; that should he 
take the liberty to go out of his own house after ten o'clock 
at night, without a pass from a Justice of the Peace, or 
"some respectable citizen," (!) he might be compelled to 
pass the rest of the night "in a lock-up-house," and the next 
morning be fined ten dollars ; and should any dark complex- 
ioned free man be guilty of drunkenness or profane lan- 
guage, he should be fined not exceeding three dollars. Thus 
we see with what zeal the Washington Corporation endea- 
vors to prevent the colored citizens from affecting the man- 
ners and fashions of their white brethren. But there are 
still more serious matters. A colored citizen from any of 
the States, taking up his residence in the Capital of the Re- 
public, is required within a certain time, not only to be re- 
gistered, but also to find two freehold sureties in the penalty 
of five hundred dollars, for his good behavior ; and if he 
does not, he is to be imprisoned till he consents to leave the 
seat of the Federal Government ; and if he does not prove 
that he is a freeman, he shall be sold as a slave to pay Ids 
jail fees ! ! 

Such are the abominable and iniquitous means used by 
and with the sanction of Congress, for the degradation and 
oppression of colored citizens. We are next to take a view of 

Slavery under the authority of the Federal Gov- 
ernment. 

It is well known that Congress is the local legislature of 
the District of Columbia, and of all the territories belonging 
to the Union, and with powers far exceeding those possessed 
by any State Legislature, being unfettered with constitutional 



RECOVERY OF FUGITIVES. 11 

restrictions. The authority vested in Congress over the 
District and territories, is virtually despotic, being an " ex- 
clusive jurisdiction in all cases whatsoever." Yet Ave have 
lono- had slaveholcfing territories. The vast domain acquir- , 
ed by the purchase of Louisiana, has, under the authority 
of Congress, been stocked with slaves, excepting so much 
as is north of 3SA- degrees north latitude, which is, by act of 
Congress, specially protected from the pollution. This very 
law is one of the most profligate and decided acts of the 
Federal Government in behalf of slavery; for by means of 
it, the immense territory south of this line was deliberately 
surrendered to all the cruelties and abominations of the sys- 
tem ; it was moreover an express acknowledgement by the 
Government of its power to prohibit slavery throughout the 
whole territory, and that it had made a compromise, a bar- 
gain between humanity and cruelty, religion and wicked- 
ness ; and had erected on an arbitrary line, a partition wall 
between slavery and liberty. 

But it is in the District of Columbia, and under the shadow 
of the proud Capitol, that the action of the Federal Govern- 
ment in behalf of slavery, is exhibited in its most odious and 
disgusting forms. We shall have occasion presently to ex- 
hibit the seat of the National Government, as the great slave 
mart of the North American Continent, " furnished with all 
appliances and means to boot." The old slave laws of Vir- 
ginia and Maryland, marked by the barbarity of other days, 
form by Act of Congress, the slave code of the District. Of 
this code, a single sample will suffice. A slave convicted of 
setting fire to a building, shall have his head cut oft', and his 
body divided into quarters, and the parts set up in the most 
public places ! But let it not be supposed that Congress 
has not itself legislated directly on the subject of slavery. 
An Act of loth May, 1820, gives the Corporation of Wash- 
ington, power to " punish corporeally any slave for a breach 
of any of their ordinances." Happy Avould it have been for 
the honor of our country, if the sympathies of its rulers in 
behalf of slavery, had been exhibited only on the national 
domain ; but they pervade every portion of the confederacy, 
as is but too apparent in 
The interference of the Federal Government for 

the recovery of fugitive slaves. 

The federal constitution contains the following clause : 

" No person held to service or labor in one State under the 

laws thereof, escaping into another, shall in consequence of 

any law or regulation therein be discharged from such ser- 



12 RECOVERY OF FUGITIVES. 

vice or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party 
to whom such service or labor may be due." 

At the time this constitution was adopted, the cultivation 
and manufacture of cotton had not so far progressed, as to 
paralyze by their profits, the conscience of the nation, or to 
divest it of the sense of shame ; and hence this clause al- 
though relating to slaves, forbears to name them. Is was 
inserted to satisfy the South ; and its obvious meaning is, 
that Slaves escaping into States in which slavery is abolished 
by law, shall not therefore be deemed free by the State au- 
thorities, but shall be delivered by those authorities, # to his 
master. This clause imposes an obligation on the States, 
but confers no power on Congress ; and the Constitution 
moreover declares, that " the powers not delegated to the 
United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to 
the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the 
people." Hence it follows that as the power of recovering 
these fugitives is not delegated to Congress, it is reserved to 
the several States, who are bound to make such laws as may 
be deemed proper, to authorize the master to recover his 
slave. Nevertheless, the Federal Government in its zeal for 
slavery, has not scrupled to assume power never delegated 
to it and has exercised that power in gross and contemptu- 
ous violation of every principle, which in free countries, di- 
rects the administration of justice. If a Virginian enters 
New-York, and claims as his property a horse which he finds 
in the possession of one of our citizens, an impartial jury is 
selected to pass on his claim, — witnesses are orally, and 
publicly examined, — the claimant is debarred from all 
private intercourse with the jury, — he may not be alone 
with them for a moment, nor may a whisper pass between 
them ; and when the trial is over, the jury retire to deliber- 
ate on their verdict, under the charge of an officer, who is 
sworn to keep them apart, and not to suffer any person to 
speak with them ; nor can the horse be at last recovered but 
with the unanimous consent of the jury. But let the Vir- 
ginian claim, not the horse, but the CITIZEN HIMSELF 
as his beast of burden, and the Federal Government makes 
all things easy for him. By the Act of 1793, the slaveholder 
may himself without oath, or process of any kind, seize his 
prey, where he can find him, and at his leisure, (for no time 
is specified,) drag him before any Justice of the Peace* in 

* In New-York the Legislature has interfered, and forbidden a Justice of 
the Peace to act, and has therefore virtually declared the Act of Congress to 
he unconstitutional, — and that the power of prescribing the mode in which 
fugitives shall be restored, belongs exclusively to the States. 



RECOVERY OP FUGITIVES. 13 

the place, whom he may prefer. This Justice is a state 
officer, and of the lowest judicial grade, and under no legal 
obligation to execute an Act of Congress, and entitled to no 
fees for his services. He is therefore peculiarly accessible 
to improper influences. Before this magistrate, who is not 
authorized to compel the attendance of witnesses in such a 
case, the slaveholder brings his victim, and if he can satisfy 
this judge of his own choice, " by oral testimony or affidavit" 
and for aught that appears in the law, by his own oath, that 
his claim is well founded, the wretched prisoner is surren- 
dered to him as a slave for life, torn from his wife and chil- 
dren, bereft of all the rights of humanity, and converted into 
a chattel, — an article of merchandise, — a beast of burden ! ! 

The Federal Constitution declares: — " In suits at com- 
mon law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twen- 
ty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved ; but 
the Act of 1793, in suits in which " the value in controversy" 
exceeds all estimation, dispenses with trial by jury, and in- 
deed with almost every safeguard of justice and personal 
liberty. 

This law, iniquitous as it is, does not require State officers 
to anticipate the pursuit of the slaveholder, and to seize and 
imprison their fellow men, on mere suspicion that they may 
be claimed as slaves. What the Federal Government dares 
not do in the States, it accomplishes on its own exclusive 
territory, and in a manner which, for atrocious wickedness 
and tyranny, leaves far in the shade the vilest acts of Euro- 
pean despotism. This is indeed strong language ; but alas ! 
language is too feeble adequately to represent the turpitude 
of the laws and practices sanctioned by the Federal Gov- 
ernment, in the District under its " exclusive jurisdiction." 

By the Act of 1793, a Justice can take no step for the re- 
storation of a fugitive slave, till the fact of his being one is 
proved before him on oath. But in the Metropolis of the 
Nation, — in the city called by the name of the Father of 
his Country, a Justice of the Peace may commit to the Uni- 
ted States Prison, and into the custody of the United 
States Marshal, any man he may choose to suspect of 
being a fugitive slave. Notice is then given in the newspa- 
pers of the commitment, and the unknown owner is warned 
to take away his property, or it will be sold according to 
law, to pay JAIL FEES. 

After the doors of the dungeon have closed upon the vic- 
tim, no magistrate, no court, no jury take cognizance of his 
claims to freedom. The jailor is the only tribunal to which 



14 SALE OP FREE NEGROES. 

he can appeal, and how disinterested a tribunal will presently 
be seen. If a freeman, no master can of course, lawfully 
claim him, and not being claimed, he is sold at auction to 
raise money to pay an officer of the Federal Government for 
the trouble and expense of keeping him a few weeks in 
prison. What civilized government of the old world prac- 
tices more execrable wickedness 1* 

The whole depth of this villany is not yet sounded. Tha 
disclosures we are now about making should make every ear 
to tingle and every heart to quake. No doubt it will occur 
to many that if a free man, all the prisoner has to do, to ob- 
tain his liberation, is to prove his freedom. Prove his free- 
dom while locked up in his cell ! Where is his counsel 1 ? 
— where bis process for commanding the attendance of wit- 
nesses I where the court sitting in open day to investigate 
his right to freedom '.* where the jury to pass upon his case ?• 
The marshal, or his deputy the jailor, is the only human 
being, except his fellow-victims, to whom he can tell his tale. 
The marshal is the judge, and the sole judge of his prisoner's 
title to freedom. He is the arbiter of happiness and misery, 
of liberty and bondage : he opens the door of the dungeon, 
and at his sovereign will bids his captive go forth to enjoy 
the rights and fulfil the duties of a rational, accountable, and 
immortal being, or conducts him to the human shambles 
erected in the city of Washington, and there sells him under 
the hammer as a slave for life. Compared with this tre- 
mendous jurisdiction, the powers vested in the highest judi- 
cial officer in our country dwindle into insignificance. And 
should suclt a judge be disinterested 1 The very question is 
shocking to our every idea of justice. Disinterested ! — 
Screened from the public eye — accountable only to that 
Being who seeth in secret — declaring his judgment in the 
recesses of the prison* he should of all men be most exempt 
from human passion and infirmity. Yet to this jud [ax the law 
offers a high and tempting brile to sell men lie knows to be 
free, and thus to become a ma/////actnrcr of slaves. AV^ill this 

Nol as an apology for this expression, but as a reason why the writer 
feels more sensibly than perhaps many others on this subject, ho thinks pro- 
per to mention tilat a free colored man belonging to his neighborhood rn 
Westchester County, N. Y., on going to Washington some years since, whs 
there legally kidnapped, and advertised by the marshal to be sold to pnv h'rs 
jail fees. A \\ asbington paper containing the advertisement providentially 
fell into the hands of a citizen of the County who knew the man. A publiG 
meeting was called, and the Governor of the State, De Witt Clinton, at their 
request, demanded from the President his immediate release as a citizen o': 
New-York. 



SALE OF FREE NEGROES. 15 

statement be credited 1 It cannot, and ought not to be, 
without full and unequivocal proof, and to that proof we now 
appeal ; premising for the better understanding of our proof, 
that the marshal is required to maintain the suspected fugi- 
tives while in his custody and is entitled to fees for receiving 
them, Sec., and if unreclaimed has no means of procuring 
payment of his expenses and fees but from the proceeds of 
the sale of his prisoners ; and further, that the u-Jtole of those 
proceeds are permitted by law to remain in his pocket, un- 
less after the sale the master should be discovered, and 
should claim the balance. 

On the 11th January, 1827, the committee on the District 
of Columbia, to whom the subject had been referred by the 
House of Representatives, reported that " in this District, as 
in all the slaveholding States in the Union, the legal pre- 
sumption is, that persons of color going at large without 
any evidences of their freedom, are absconding slaves, and 
prima facie, liable to all the legal provisions applicable to 
that class of persons." They state that in the part of the 
District ceded by Virginia, a free negro may be arrested 
and put in jail for three months on suspicion of being a fugi- 
tive ; he is then to be hired out to pay his jail fees ; and if 
he does not prove his freedom within twelve months, is to 
be sold as a slave. This statement is followed by the re- 
mark, " the committee do not consider any alteration of the 
law in the County of Alexandria in relation to this subject, 
necessary!" In the County of Washington, ceded by Ma- 
ryland, they inform us, "If a free man of color should be 
apprehended as a runaway, he is subjected to the payment 
of nil fees and rewards given by law for apprehending runa- 
ways ; and upon failure to make such payment, is liable to 
be sold as a slave." That is, a man ac&nowedged to he free, 
and unaccused of any offence, is to be sold as a slave to pay 
the "fees and rewards given by law for apprehending run- 
aways." If Turkish despotism is disgraced by any enact- 
ment of equal atrocity, we are ignorant of the fact. Even 
the committee thought this law rather hard, and therefore 
they " recommended such an alteration of it as would make 
such charges payable by the Corporation of Washington. "* 
But the Federal Government, unwavering in its devotion to 
slavery, made no alteration, and the code of Washington is 
to this day polluted by unquestionably the most iniquitous 
statute in Christendom. Laws are sometimes more profli- 
gate than those who are called to administer them, and the 

•See Reports of Committees, 2 Sess. 19 Cong. Vol. I. No. 43. 



16 SALE OF FREE NEGROES. 

committee assure us that the Marshal has in all cases re- 
frained from selling his prisoners for fees and charges, when 
their rights to freedom has been astablished ; and in conse- 
quence of not availing himself of the privilege allowed him 
by this law, he had incurred, in the last eight years, a per- 
sonal loss of $500 ! In other words, the Marshal's sense of 
justice, decency, and humanity, exceeded that of the rulers 
of our Republic. 

On the 29th of January,- 1829, the committee on the Dis- 
trict of Columbia made a report in obedience to the instruc- 
tions of the House of Representatives, " to inquire into the 
slave trade as it exists in and is carried on through the Dis- 
trict." The Report proposes no interference on the part of 
Congress, but is virtually an apology for this vile traffic, as 
is apparent from the following heartless sentiments and false 
assertions. 

" The trade alluded to, is presumed to refer more partic- 
ularly to that which is carried on with the view of transport- 
ing slaves to the South, which is one way of gradually dimin- 
ishing the evil complained of here ; while the situation of 
these persons is considerably mitigated by being transplant- 
ed to a more genial and bountiful clime. Although violence 
may sometimes be done to their feelings in the separation of 
families, it is by the laws of society which operate upon them 
as property, and cannot be avoided as long as they exist; 
yet it should be some consolation to those whose feelings are 
interested in their behalf, to know that their condition is more 
frequently bettered, and their minds happier by the excltangey* 

To this report is appended a letter (January 13, 1S29,) 
from the Marshal to the committee, containing most import- 
ant and heart-rending statements. It appears from this let- 
ter, that from the 1st January, 1S26, to 1st January, 1S28, 
there were committed to the Washington prison as runa- 
ways, 101. 

Proved to be free, and discharged, 15 

Unclaimed, and sold for maintenance, and charges 

and fees, 5 

Proved to be slaves, and delivered to their masters, 81 

To! 

In 182S — Committed as runaways, 78. 
Proved to be free, 11 

Unclaimed, or sold for jail fees, etc. 1 

Delivered to their masters, 66 

7S 

* Reports of Committees, 2 Sess. 20 Cong. No. CO. 



SALE OF FREE NEGROES, 17' 

Here then is proof, official documentary proof, that in 
three years, 179 human beings were, by the authority of the 
Federal Government, arrested in one county of the District, 
and committed to prison on no allegation of crime, but mere- 
ly to aid the slaveholders in trampling upon those great prin- 
ciples of human rights, for the protection of which the Na- 
tional Government was professedly founded. It is also in 
proof that of these 179 prisoners, 26 were, by the confession 
of the Marshal, free men ; men whom (as appears from the 
report we have quoted,) he had a legal right to consign to 
hopeless and awful bondage, merely because they were too 
poor to pay the expenses of their unjust imprisonment ; and 
who were indebted for their liberty, not to the laws and con- 
stitution of their country, but to the beneficence of their 
jailor — a beneficence too, exercised at his own pecuniary 
loss. Proof also is here given, that six persons unclaimed 
as slaves, were, by the judgment of this same jailor, without 
counsel, witnesses, or trial, sentenced to be i laves for 

the purpose of raising money, the whole of which, as we 
shall presently sec, was paid over to the jfrdge who pronoun- 
ced the sentence. The Marshal gives in his letter the par- 
ticulars of the sale of the live unclaimed negroes, as follows, 
viz : Si — Amount of jail fees, etc. 4 82 

Offered for sale according to law, and no person 
being willing to give 68 1 82, he was purchased by 
Tenc old; the Marshal, for that sum, and 

afterwards sold by him to Robert Bownfor $20, by 
which the Marshal lost, 

Hannah Green sold for 
Maintenance, etc. 

Balance remaining in Marshal's hands, 

Lezcis Davis sold for 
Amount of fees, etc. 

Balance remaining in Marshal's hands, 

James Green sold for 
Fees and maintenance, 

Balance remaining in Marshal's hands, 

Arthur Neal sold for amount of his jail fees and 

maintenance, to the Marshal, being 
Sold afterwards by private sale to J. G. Hutton for 

Lost by Marshal, $06 06 



64 


82 


$61 

48 


00 
71 


$12 29 


$250 
50 


00 
07 


8199 93 


$80,00 
49 66 


830 


34 


I 

$46 
r 40 


0:; 
00 



18 SALE OF FREE NEGROE3. 

The letter concludes thus : " The Marshal has always con- 
sidered it to be his duty whenever a negro was committed 
as a runaway by a Justice of the Peace, who in all cases 
under the law commits them, which negro had not in his 
possession proof of his freedom, but alleged himself to be a 
freeman, to write to any part of the United States to persons 
who the negro affirmed could prove his freedom, urging 
them to send on their certificates of such negro being free ; 
and in many instances, these letters of the Marshal or his 
jailor have been the means of bringing proof that the negro 
was free. 

" The law of Maryland in force in this District, directs 
that the balance of sales of negroes (sold as runaways) .shall 
remain in the Marshal's l/aiulx until the runaway was identi- 
fied as the property of some master ; and in conformity there- 
to, the Marshal has uniformly handed over such balance 
whenever the master proved Ins property. In a late case, 
Mr. Sprigg of Louisiana, lost a valuable slave, who escaj:>ed 
from him, and made his way to this District, and was com- 
mitted to my custody, advertised and sold, according to law ; 
leaving a balance of jirr hundred dollars, after paying main- 
tenance, etc. in my hands. The negro was carried to Lou- 
isiana by the person who purchased him of me, discovered 
by his former master, Mr. Sprigg, who sent on here and 
claimed his money. Having ascertained that this negro was 
the property of Mr. Sprigg, I paid the $500 on demand to 
his agent here, Mr. .1 osiah Johnson, Senator of Congress from 
that State. Tench Ringgold, Marshal, Dist. Col." 

Such are the secrets of the prison-house, established by 
the Federal Government. It may be well to contemplate 
them in detail. It appears from the cases of Si and Neal, 
that the Marshal of the United States after deciding on the 
liberty or bondage of his prisoners, is allowed to take his 
fees in human flesh, and the condemned becomes the proper* 
ty of the very Judge who sentenced him to servitude, and 
who carries him into the market there to make out of him 
as much money as he can. True it is, Mr. Ringgold's spec- 
ulations appear not to have been very productive, but other 
jailor-judges may have less honesty, or more skill in negro 
flesh. The Marshal it seems sold his fees in the shape of 
Sr, for only $20. No reason is assigned for this nominal 
price. Very probably it was a case similar to the one de- 
scribed by Mr. Miner, in his speech on the floor of the House 
of Representatives, in 1S29. " In August, 1821," said Mr. 
M., " a black man was taken up, and imprisoned as a runa- 



SALE OF FREE NEGROES. 19 

way. He was kept confined until October, 1822, four hun- 
dred and five days. In this time, vermin, disease, and mise- 
ry had deprived him of the use his limbs. lie was rendered 
a cripple for life, and finally discharged as no one would buy 
him." 

The Hannah and James Green sold for fees, were most 
likely man and wife, and may remind us that the law we are 
considering is utterly reckless of the most sacred relations. 
The proceeds of three of the five sold in 1S26-7, after de- 
ducting fees, &c. is $242,56, and this sum, according to law, 
the Marshal retains till called for; but if the tiegroes were 
free, then, there being no claimant, the money can never be 
called for, and becomes the perquisite of office, and the in- 
come of the Judge of course fluctuates according to the num- 
ber of freemen he condemns to slavery. Thus does the law 
literally press upon the Marshal the wages of imriohteous- 
ness — thus does it bribe him to the commission of wicked- 
ness. In one instance, the receipts of a single condemna- 
tion were 8500, of which the Marshal was deprived only by 
a most extraordinaiw accident. 

And now let us review the conduct of the Federal Gov- 
ernment towards the free colored citizen of any State, who 
presumes to visit the city of AYashington. At the will of a 
Justice of the Peace he is thrown into prison. His jailor, if 
he possesses the humanity and disinterestedness of Mr. Ring- 
gold may, if he pleases, write letters to distant parts of the 
confederacy, although he knows that a favorable answer may 
keep some hundred dollars from finding their way into his 
pocket. If no such answer arrives, without any evidence 
that the letter of inquiry was ever received, the poor wretch 
is condemned as a slave, and the price of his bones and mus- 
cles is paid to the Judge who condemned him. 

And by whom is this accursed law kept in force? By 
Northern Representatives and Senators in Congress. On the 
8th February, 1836, the House of Representatives resolved, 
that " Congress ought not to interfere in any way with slave- 
ry in the District of Columbia," and no less than S^ north- 
ern men had the hardihood to record their names in favor of 
the resolution. To place if possible, in a still stronger light, 
the conduct of these men, it may be mentioned that the law 
we have been considering, belonged to the code of Mary- 
land, at the time the District was ceded, and was continued 
in force by Act of Congress. In the meantime, the Legis- 
lature of Maryland, composed of slaveholders, yielding to 
the spirit of the age, has erased this foul stain from her stat- 



20 SALE OP FREE NEGROES. 

ute-book, while our northern democrats with liberty and 
equality forever on their lips, in hope of getting a few south- 
ern votes for their party, discover that Congress ought not 
to interfere in any way with slavery in the District, although 
it is by the authority of Congress that freemen are converted 
into slaves. 

We \.ill now place side by side, two advertisements, one 

published by authority of Congress, in which northern men 

have the majority ; the other by authority of the slave State 

of Maryland, — the first relating to a teaman and infant 

aing to be free the other to a man confessing himself a 

SLAVE. 

" Notice. — AVas committed to the jail of Washington 
county, District of Columbia, as a runaway, a negro woman, 
by th .eiper, and her infant child Willi 

she is five feel , about twenty-three years of 

age. She had on when committed * * * * Says she 
was set free by John Campbell, of Richmond, Va., in 1818 
or 1819. The owner of the above-described woman and 
child, if any, are requested to come and prove them, and 
take them away, or they will be sold for their jail fees 

AND OTHER EXPENSES AS THE LAV" DIRE( 

Tench Ringgold, Marshal.''' 

May 19, 1S27. 

" Ran'away. — Y\ 7 as committed to the jail of Washington 

County, Maryland, on the 24th December last, a mulatto 

. calls himself John McDaniel, about 25 years of age. 

Says fa to William Hill, living at Falmouth, 

Va., and was sold to John Daily, living somewhere in the 

South. The owner of the said slave is requested to come 

and take him away, or he will be released according to law. 

Christian Newcomb, Jun., Sheriff^." 

December 10, 1827.* 

The endeavors of the Federal Government to secure the 
restoration of fugitive slaves to their masters, is not confined 
either to the District, of Columbia, or to the States of this 
confederacy. Even American diplomacy must be made sub- 
servient to the interests of the slaveholders, and republican am- 
bassadors must bear to foreign courts the waitings of our 
government for the escape of human property. 

On the 10th of May, 1828, the House of Representatives 
requested the President " to open a negotiation with the 
British government in the view to obtain an arrangement 

* Both advertisements are taken from the Washington Intelligencer. 



FUGITIVES IN CANADA. 21 

whereby fugitive slaves who have taken refuge in the Cana- 
dian provinces of that government, may he surrendered by 
the functionaries thereof to their masters, upon making sat- 
isfactory proof of their ownership of said slaves." 

Here was a plain, palpable interference in behalf of slave- 
ry by a government which Ave are often assured by the slave- 
holders " has nothing to do with slavery ;" and so tame and 
subsen ient were the northern members that this disgraceful 
resolution was adopted without even a division of the House ! 
At the next session, the impatience of the slaveholders to 
know if Great Britain would restore their slaves who had 
taken refuge in Canada, could brook no longer delay, and 
the House Called on the President to inform them of the re- 
sult of the negotiation. The President immediately sub- 
mitted a mass of documents to the House, from which it ap- 
peared that the zeal of the Executive, in behalf of "the pe- 
culiar institution," had anticipated the wishes of the Legis- 
lature. Two years before the interference of the Houfe, 
viz : on the 19th of June, 1826, Mr. Clay, Secretary of State, 
had instructed Mr. Gallatin, American Minister, in. London, 
to propose a stipulation for " a mutual surrender of all per- 
sons held to service or labor under the laws of either party 
who escape into the territories of the other." Mr. Clay 
dwelt on the number of fugitives in Canada, and desired 
Mr. Gallatin to press on the British Government the consid- 
eration that such a stipulation, would secure to the V^est In- 
dia ry of such of 'their slaves as might take 
: inerican Republic ! 
" Surely the Federal Government was never intended by 
its founders to act the part of kidnapper for West India 
slaveholders. 

On the 24th of February, 1S27, Mr. Clay again urged Mr. 
Gallatin to procure this stipulation, and informed him that a 
treaty had just been concluded with Mexico, ly which that 
power had engaged to restore our runaway strives?* 

On the 5th July, 1827, Mr. Gallatin communicated to his 
government the answer of the British Minister, that " it was 
utterly impossible for them to agree to a stipulation for the 
surrender of fugitive slaves." 

Determined not to take no for an answer, Mr. Clay desi- 
red Mr. Barbour, our then Minister in England, to renew 
the negotiation, inasmuch as the escape of slaves into Cana- 
da is " a growing evil;" but alas ! Mr. Barbour replied that 

* Such a treaty was negotiated, but the Mexican Congress refused to. rat- 
ify the base compact. 



22 FUGITIVES IN FLORIDA. 

on broaching the subject to the British Minister, he had in- 
formed him "pie law of Parliament gave freedom to every 
slave who effected his landing on British ground"* To have 
attempted to march an army into Canada, for the purpose of 
seizing these fugitives, would have cost rather more than 
they were worth. There was, however, a territory on our 
southern frontier, belonging to a power less able than Great 
Britain to punish aggressions on her sovereignty, and hence 
it is that we are called to consider 

The invasion of Florida, and destruction of fugitive 
slaves by the forces of the federal government. 

On the 15th March, 1816, Mr. Crawford, Secretary of 
War, addressed a letter to General Jackson, informing him 
that there was a fort in Florida, occupied by between 250 
and 300 blacks, and that they and the hostile Creek Indians 
were guilty of secret practices to inveigle negroes from the 
frontiers of Georgia, and dh-ecting him to call the attention 
of the Commandant at Pensacola to the subject. The Sec- 
retary added, that should the Commandant decline interfe- 
ring, and should it be determined that the destruction of the 
negro fort does not require the sanction of Congress, means 
will be promptly taken for its reduction. 

Gen. Jackson, however had, before the receipt of this de- 
spatch, " assumed the responsibility" of sending his orders 
respecting this very fort to Gen. Gaines. " If the fort har- 
bors the negroes of our citizens, or of friendly Indians living 
within our territory, or holds out inducements to the slaves 
of our citizens to desert from their owner's service, it must 
be destroyed. — Notify the governor of Pensacola of your ad- 
vance into his territory, and- for tlie express ]>urj>osc of destroy- 
ing these lawless banditti." The letter concludes with direc- 
tions to " restore the stolen negroes to their rightful owners." 
(Letter of 8th April, 1816.) 

Owing to some cause not explained, Gen. Gaines did not 
fulfil his instructions; and a gun boat was sent up the Ap- 
palachicola river by order of Commodore Patterson, and on 
the 27th July attacked the fort by firing red-hot shot at it. 
A shot entered the magazine which exploded. The result 
is thus stated in the official l-eport: " Three hundred negroes, 
men, women, and children, and about 20 Indians, were in the 
fort ; of these, 270 were killed, and the greater part of the 
rest mortally wounded." 

Commodore Patterson, in his letter to the Seci'etary of 

* State papers. 2 Sess. 20th Cong. Vol. I. 



FUGITIVES PAID FOR. 23 

the Navy, observes : " The service rendered by the destruc- 
tion of this fort, and the band of negroes who held it and the 
country in its vicinity, is of great and manifest importance 
to the United States, and particularly those States bordering 
on the Creek nation, as it had become a general rendezvous 
for rwmway sleeves and disaffected Indians — an asylum where 
they found arms and ammunition to protect themselves against 
their owners and the government. This hold being destroy- 
ed, they have no longer a place to fly to, and will not be so 
liable to abscond. The force of the negroes Avas daily in- 
creasing, and they had commenced several plantations on the 
banks of the Appalachicola."* 

Various plantations have also been commenced in Canada 
by fugitive slaves, but being under the protection of Groat. 
Britain, and not of Spain, the Federal Government has wisely 
abstained from way forcible attempt to destroy them. 

It is now time to advert to one of the most extraordinary 
exploits of American diplomacy, viz : 
Compensation for fugitive slaves, obtained by the 

Federal Government. 
The presence of British armed vessels in our southern 
waters, during the last war, afforded an opportunity to many 
of the slaves to escape from bondage. In 1S14, and while 
the war was raging in all its fury, commissioners were ap- 
pointed to treat of peace, and instructions were given to 
them as to the stipulations to be inserted in the treaty. These 
instructions contain the following remarkable passage. " The 
negroes taken from the southern States should be returned 
to their owners, or paid for at their full value. If these 
slaves were considered as non-combatants, they ought to be 
restored : if as property, they ought to be paid for." More- 
over, this stipulation is expressly included " in the condi- 
tions on which you are to insist in the proposed negotiations." 
— Letter of instructions from Mr. Monroe, Secretary of State, 
2Stk January, lS14.t 

Thus we see that not even the calamities of war, could di- 
vert the attention of the Federal Government from the pe- 
culiar interests of the slaveholders. The commissioners were 
faithful to the charge thus given to them ; and in the treaty 
concluded at Ghent, adroitly provided for the restoration of 
slaves; and in such obscure terms as ultimately secured a 
far more extensive concession' than the British negotiators 
had any intention of making. 



* State papers. 2 Sess. 15th Cong. No. C5. t American State papers. 
Vol. IX. p. 364. 



24 NEGOTIATION FOR PAYMENT 

The 1st Article is as follows : " All territory, places and 
possessions whatever, taken from either party, by the other 
during the Avar, or which may be taken alter the signing of 
this treaty, shall be restored without delay, and without 
causing any destruction or carrying away of the artillery or 
other public property originally captured in said forts or pla- 
ces, and which shall remain upon the exchange of the ratifi- 
cations of this treaty, or any slaves or other private property." 

The treaty was ratified at Washington on the 17th Feb- 
ruary; and six days after, throe commissioners appointed by 
the government appeared in the Chesapeake, authorized to 
demand and receive the slaves on board the British squadron 
still in our waters. 

Captain John Clarelle happened to be at the moment in 
command of the British forces, and he positively refused to 
give up a single fugitive; contending that the stipulation in 
the treaty related only to slaves " original! ed in forts 

or places," and remaining in such forts or places at the ex- 
change of the ratifications, and had no reference to the slaves 
who had voluntarily sought protection on board British vessels. 

A few days after, Admiral Cockburn arrived, and a simi- 
demand wa upon him. He also refused to sur- 

render any fugitives, as such were not intended in the treaty, 
but gave up SO slaves which were found on Cumberland Isl- 
and at the time that place was captured, and who had not 
been removed previous to the exchange of ratifications ; this 
being a case directly within the true meaning and intention 
of the treaty. The Secretary of State then applied to the 
British Charge d' Affaires at Washington, requesting him to 
direct the Naval Commanders in the Chesapeake to give up 
the fugitives on board their vessels ; but Mr. Baker declined 
interfering, taking the same view of the article as the Admi- 
ral had done. In the meantime the squadron had sailed for 
Bermuda. The Government, tracking the scent of a fugitive 
with blood-hound keenness, forthwith despatched an agent 
to Bermuda in pursuit, to demand the negroes of the Gov- 
ernor. The worthy Englishman, nettled at a requisition so 
derogatory to the honor of his country, replied, " he would 
rather Bermuda, with every man, woman, and child in it, 
were sunk under the sea, than surrender one slave that had 
sought protection under the flag of England," 

The Agent, (Thomas Spalding) nothing daunted, now as- 
sumed the diplomatist, and addressed a long argumentative 
despatch to Admiral Griffith, commanding on the Bermuda 
Station, demanding the fugitives, and promising to furnish 



OF FUGITIVE SLAVES. 25 

him with a particular list of the slaves claimed, which he ex- 
pected to receive in a few days from the United States. The 
Admiral very cavalierly assured Mr. Spalding that it was 
quite unnecessary for him to wait at Bermuda for the expect- 
ed document, since there was, neither at Bermuda nor any' 
other British island or settlement, any authority " competent 
to deliver up persons who during the late wars, had placed 
themselves under the protection of the British flag."* 

From British Governors and Admirals, our Government 
now turned to the British Cabinet, and found that there also 
it was held a point of honor to keep faith, even with runaway 
slaves. Lord Castlereagh declared that the Government 
never would have a y requiring the surren- 

der of persons who had taken refuge under the British 
Standard. Again was the demand made, and again was it 
unequivocally rejected. But the administration refused to 
yield, and insisted on a reference of the question to the de- 
cision of a friendly power, and named the Emperor of Rus- 
sia as umpire. After tedious negotiation, this point was car- 
ried ; and in ISIS, a convention was concluded at London, 
submitting the true construction of the treaty to the Empe- 
ror, who decided in favor of the slaveholders. It now be- 
came necessary to determine how the number of the slaves, 
and their value, should be ascertained. Another negotiation 
ensued, which resulted in a second convention, by which it 
was a hat each party should appoint a certain number 

of Commissioners, who should form a Board to sit at Wash- 
ington, to receive and liquidate the claims of the masters. 
But difficulties soon arose. The American Commissioners 
insisted on interest, which the others refused to allow. Ne- 
gotiations again commenced, till at last the British Cabinet, 
wearied with the pertinacity of the American Government, 
and sick of the controversy, entered into a third convention, 
(loth Nov. 1836,) by which the enormous sum of one mil- 
lion TWO HUNDRED AND FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS Was paid 

and received in full of all demands. 

Thus after a persevering negotiation, conducted for twelve 
years, at Washington, in the Chesapeake Bay, at Bermuda, 
at London, and at Petersburgh, did our Government succeed 
in obtaining most ample compensation for the fugitives. 
Commissioners were then appointed to distribute this sum ; 
and after fixing an average value on each slave proved to 
have been carried away, it was found that a surjilux still re- 
mained ; and this surplus was divided among the masters! 

* State papers — 14th Cong. 2d Sesa. — Senate documents, No. 82. 



26 DEMAND OF PAYMENT 

Having now seen the success that attended the pursuit of 
fugitive slaves, let us next witness the 

Efforts of the Federal Government to recover ship- 
wrecked slaves. • 

Considering the extent of the Amei'ican slave trade, it is 
not surprising that our slaves are occasionally driven out of 
their course ; and are sometimes wrecked upon the danger- 
ous reefs abounding in the neighboring Archipelago. 

On the 3d Jan. 1831, the Brig Comet, a regular slaver 
from the District of Columbia, on her usual voyage from 
Alexandria to New-Orleans, with a cargo of 164 slaves, was 
lost off the Island of Abaco. The slaves were saved, and 
carried into New-Providence, where they wei'e set at liberty 
by the authorities of the Island. A portion of the cargo, 
(146 head) was insured at New-Orleans for §71,330. 

On the 4th Feb. 1833, the Brig Encomium, from Charles- 
ton to New-Orleans with 45 slaves, was also wrecked near 
Abaco, and the slaves carried into New-Providence, where, 
like their predecessors, they were declared to be free. 

In Feb. 1S35, the Enterprise, another regular slaver from 
the National Domain, on her voyage to Charleston, with 78 
slaves, was driven into Beimuda in distress. The passen- 
gers, instead of being thrown into prison as Bermudians 
would have been in Charleston under similar circumstances, 
were hospitably treated, and permitted to go at large. These 
successive and unexpected transmutations of slaves into free- 
men, roused the ready zeal of the Federal Government. 
Directly on the loss of the Comet, instructions were sent 
from Washington to our Minister, to demand of the British 
Government the value of the cargo. In 1832, another des- 
patch was forwarded on the subject. The instructions were 
again renewed in 1833 ; the Secretary of State remarking, 
this case "must be brought to a conclusion — the doctrine that 
would justify the liberation of our slaves, is too dangerous to 
a large section of our country to be tolerated." 

In 1834, fresh instructions were sent, and a demand 
ordered to be made for the value of the slaves in the En- 
comium. 

In 1835, similar instructions were sent relative to the En- 
terprise. 

In 1S36, the instructions were renewed ; the Secretary 
observing to Mr. Stevenson, " In the present state of our 
diplomatic relations with the Government of His Britanic 
Majesty, the most immediately pressing of the matters with 



FOR SniPWRECKED SLAVES. 27 

which the United States' Legation at London is now charged, 
is the claim of certain American citizens against Great Brit- 
ain for a number of slaves, the cargoes of three vessels 
wrecked in British Islands in the Atlantic." 

Thus for six successive years did the Cabinet at Washing- 
ton keep sending despatches to their agents in England, urg- 
ing them to obtain payment from Great Britain for these 
cargoes of human flesh. Nor were those agents remiss or 
reluctant in fulfilling their instructions. Numerous were 
the letters addressed to the British Secretary, claiming either 
the restoration of the slaves, or their equivalent in money. 

From a long and labored communication from Mr. Ste- 
venson to Lord Palmerston, we extract the following moreeau. 

" The undersigned feels assured that it will only be neces- 
sary to refer Lord Palmerston to the provisions of the Con- 
stitution of the United States, and the laws of many of the 
States, to satisfy him of the existence of slavery, and that 
slaves are there regarded and protected as property : that 
by these laws, there is in fact no distinction in principle be- 
tween property in persons and property in things ; and that the 
Government hare more than once, in the most solemn manner, 
determined that slaves killed in the sendee of the United States, 
even in a state of war, were to he regarded as property, and not 
as persons; and the Government held responsible for their value.'" 

No answer having been vouchsafed to this letter, and the 
argument being exhausted, Mr. Stevenson tried the virtue of 
a diplomatic hint that the United Stales would go to war 
for their slaves ; expressing his hope in a letter to Lord 
Palmerston, that the British Government would "not longer 
consent to postpone the decision of a subject which had been 
for so many years under its consideration ; and the effect of 
which can be none other than to throw not only additional 
impediments in the way of an adjustment, and increase 
those feelings of dissatisfaction and irritation which have 
already been excited ; but by possibility tend to disturb and 
weaken the hind and amicable relations which note so happily 
subsist between the two countries, and on the preservation of 
which, so essentially depend the interests and happiness of both.'" 
— (Letter of 31st December, 1S36.) 

How this hint was received we are not informed ; but it 
is certainly not creditable to the British Government, that 
instead of a prompt and frank refusal to deliver into cruel 
and perp«fual bondage, innocent men who had providentially 
been thrown under its protection, or to estimate their value 
in pounds, shillings, and pence, it had, at our last accounts, 



28 AMERICAN SLAVE TRADE. 

avoided giying a decided answer to the demands of the AVash- 
ington Cabinet, under pretence of taking the opinion of the 
law officers of the crown. 

The negotiation was made public in consequence of a call 
by the 'Senate on the President (7th Feb. For a copy 

of the " Correspondence with the Government of Great 
Britain in relation to the outrage committed on our flag, and 
the rights of our citizens, by the authorities of Bermuda and 
New-Providence, in seizing the slaves on hoard the Brig 
'Encomium' and ' Enterprise,' engaged in the coasting trade, 
but which were forced by shipwreck and stress of weather 
into the ports of those Islands." 

The language of this resolution, indicates the influence 
exerted by slavery over the Federal Government. Should 
a murderer escape from England and land on our shores, 
we refuse to surrender him to the justice of his country ;* 
but when the West Indian authorities refi liver two 

hundred and eighty-seven innocent men, women, and child- 
ren, thrown by the tempest under their protection, into 
hopeless, interminable slavery, the Senate solemnly pro- 
nounce the refusal to be an outrase on our flag, and the 
rights of our citizens. Moreover, the liberation of these 
persons is spoken of as a • i . ur of them, and the slavers carry- 
ing human cargoes to market, are most audaciously declared 
to have been engaged in the< trade! The real trade 

in which these . sis were engaged, was 

The American Slave Trade under the protection and 
regulation of the federal government. 

We shall first exhibit the character and extent of this 
trade, and then show that il is in fact carried on under the 
protection and F the Federal Government. 

The competition of fre lave labor in the bread 

stuffs and some other productions of Maryland, Virginia, and 
North Carolina, have greatly reduced the value of slaves as 
laborers in tl fces; and hence the disposition mani- 

ime years since, to get rid of this unprofitable 
portion of their population. ■ rapid extention of the 

cottoti and sugar cultivation in the extreme South, together 

Note by J. C. Jackson. 

* By a provision in the Asbburton Treaty, made with England during the 
time Daniel Webstei was Secretary of State, this Government and that of 
England have mutually stipulated I" deliver up persons charged with offence* 
and e.scaping ini i , either, provided such act> are considered 

by both as criminal offences. 



AMERICAN SLAVE TRADE. 29 

with the settlement of the new States of Alabama, Missis- 
sippi, Missouri, and Arkansas, occasioned a prodigious de- 
mand for slaves; and the agriculturists of Virginia and the 
neighboring States discovered that their most lucrative occu- 
pation was that of raising live stock for the southern and 
western markets. In Georgia and South Carolina, it has 
also been found more advantageous to export their supernu- 
meraries to Mobile, New-Orleans, or Natchez, than to em- 
ploy them on their already well-stocked plantations. Hence 
has grown up an almost incredible transfer of slaves from 
the North to the South; and recently a new market has 
been opened in Texas, giving an additional stimulus to the 
trade. It is impossible to ascertain the exact amount of this 
trade, as the Secretary of the Treasury in his annual report 
on the commercial statistics of the United States, has never 
included any statements respecting this branch of the "coas- 
ting trade." But indeed, the returns from the several Cus- 
tom Houses of the size and value of the human cargoes 
cleared for the southern ports, if given, would afford a very 
inadequate idea of the extent of the traffic, since it is carried 
on by land as well as well as by sea. Whole coffles of 
chained slaves are driven long and painful journeys in the 
interior of the Republic, much in the same manner as in the 
wilds of Africa. The Rev. Mr. Dickey, in a published let- 
ter thus describes a coffle he met on the road in Kentucky : 
— " I discovered about forty black men all chained together 
in the following manner: each of them was handcuffed, and 
they were arranged in rank and file ; a chain perhaps forty 
feet long was stretched between two ranks, to which short 
chains were joined, which connected with the handcuffs. 
Behind them were, I suppose, thirty women in double rank, 
the coiqrfes lied hand, to hand" 

J. K. Paulding, the present Secretary of the Navy, gives 
the following picture of a scene he witnessed in Virginia : 

" The sun was shining out very hot, and in turning an 
angle of the road we encountered the following group : first, 
a little cart drawn by one horse, in which five or six half 
naked black children were tumbled like pigs together. The 
cart had no covering, and they seemed to have been actually 
broiled to sleep. Behind the cart marched three black wo- 
men, with head, neck and breasts, uncovered, and without 
shoes or stockings ; next came three men, bareheaded, half 
naked, and chained, together with an ox chain. Last of all 
came a white man — a white man, Frank ! — on horseback, 
carrying pistols in his belt, and who, as we passed him, had 



30 AMERICAN SLAVE TRADE. 

the impudence to look tis in the face without blushing. I 
should like to have seen him hunted by blood-hounds. At a 
house where we stopped a little further on, we learned that 
he had bought these miserable beings in Maryland, and v/as 
inarching them in this manner to some of the more southern 
States. Shame on the State of Maryland! I say — and 
shame on the State of Virginia ! and every State through 
which this wretched cavalcade was permitted to pass. Do 
they expect that such exhibitions will not dishonor them in 
the eyes of strangers, however ihey may be reconciled to 
them by education and habit V* 

* " Letters from the South, written during an excursion in the Summer of 
1816." New-York, 1817. Vol. I. Letter XI. p. 117. 

It may be thought by some that the elevation to a seat in the Cabinet, of a 
gentleman who expresses himself with so much warmth and fearlessness 
against one of the " peculiar institutions of the South'," militates against our 
idea that the. influence of t'ae Federal Government is exerted in behalf of 
slavery. Singular as it may appear, the appointment of Mr. Paulding is 
nevertheless strongly corroborative of the opinion we have advanced ; and 
the explanation is at once easy and amusing. The " Letters from the 
South" were reprinted in 1835, and form the fifth and sixth volumes of an 
edition of " Paulding's Works." The letter from which we have quoted 
consists of fourteen pages, devoted to the subject of slavery. On turning to 
the corresponding letter in the recent edition we find it shrunk to three pa- 
ges, containing no allusion to the internal trade, nor any thing else that could 
offend the must sensitive Southerner. In the nineteenth letter as printed in 
1817. there is not a word about slavery. In the same letter as published in 
183o, we meet with the following most wonderful prediction; a prediction 
that has lately been cited in the newspapers as a proof of the sagacity and 
foresight of the Secretary of the Navy : — 

" The second cause of disunion will be found in the slave population of the 
South, whenever the misguided, or willfully malignant zeal of the advocates 
of emancipation, shall institute as if one day doubtless will, a crusade against 
the constitutional rights of the slave owners, by sending among them fanatical 
agents and fanatical tracts, calculated to render the slaves, disaffected, and 
the si; u .• 1 1 i r -. ; i of the master and his family dangerous; when appeals shall be 
made under the sanction of religion to t'ne passions of these ignorant and ex- 
cited blacks, calculated and intended to rouse their worst and most danger- 
ous passions, and to place the very lives of their masters, their wives, and 
their children, in the deepest peril; token societies are formed in the sister 
States for the avowed purpose of virtually destroying the value of this princi- 
pal item in the property of a southern planter; when it becomes a question 
mooted in the Legislatures of the States, or of the General Government, 
whether the rights of the master over his slave shall be any longer recogni- 
zed or maintained, and when it is at last evident that nothing will preserve 
them bat secession, then will certain of the Stars of our beautiful constella- 
tion ' start madly from their spheres and jostle the others in their wild career.' " 

In the title of the new edition, the date of the "excursion" is modestly 
omitted, but the reader is not. informed that the spirit of prophecy descended 
upon the writer, not while journeying at the South, but while witnessing in 
New-York the operations of /he predicted societies, and after the city had 
been convulsed by the abolition riots* 



AMERICAN SLAVE TRADE. 31 

As we are about to enter into particulars respecting the 
American slave trade, it may not be uninteresting to inquire 
who are its victims ? They are not ire-born Americans. But 
of what color and descent ] This will no doubt be deemed 
by many a very unnecessary question ; and no little indigna- 
tion will probably be excited when we answer that large 
numbers of these victims are white men and women, and the 
children of American citizens. 

People at the north are disposed to be incredulous, when 
they hear of white slaves at the South; and yet a little re- 
flection would convince them not only that there must be 
such slaves under the present system, but that in process of 
time, a large proportion of the slaves will be as white as their 
masters. Were there no other sources of information re- 
specting the complexions of the southern slaves, the news- 
paper notices of runaways would most abundantly confirm 
our assertion. Of these notices, we give the following as 
samples. 

" $100 Reward. — The above reward will be paid for the 
apprehension ofmy man William. He is a very bright mu- 
latto — straight yellowish hair. I have no doubt he will change 
his name, and try to pass himself for a WHITE MAN, 
which he may be able to do, unless to a close observer. 

j T. S. PlCHARD." 

August 9. 

"$100 Reward. — Ranaway from James Hyhart, Paris, 
Kentucky, on the 29th June last, the mulatto boy Norton, 

In 1 G 3 ( > , Mr. Paulding published his " Slavery in the United States." In 
this work both the Old and the New Testament are made to give their sanc- 
tion to slavery. Great Britain, in abolishing slavery in the West Indies, is 
charged with having v committed robbery under cover of humanity." — (p. 
51.) " A Community of free blacks rising among the ruins of States, lords 
of the soil, smoking with the habitations and blood of their exterminated 
masters and families," would we are assured be only fulfilling " the wishes*' 
of the abolitionists. — (p. 56>) The advocates of immediate emancipation 
recommend ii as asserted, " indiscriminate marriages between the whites 
and blacks :" — (p. 61.) and well educated respectable females amongst thrm 
are apparently anxious "to become the mothers of mulattoes." — (p. C2.) 
Slavery we are told "is becoming gradually divested of all its harsh features, 
and i* now only the bugbear of the imagination:'" — (p. 2C.) and Mr. Pauld- 
ing affirms — " In a residence of several years within the District, and a pret- 
ty extensive course of travel in some of the southern States, (the exclusion 
in the summer of 1816, we suppose,) we never saw or heard of any such 
instances of cruelty. — We saiv 110 chains, (!) and heard no stripes." — 
( P . 168.) 

We trust our readers are now fully convinced of this gentleman's qualifi- 
cations for the office of Secretary of the Navy, and of Mr. Van Buren's con- 
sistency in appointing him. 



32 WHITE SLAVES. 

about 15-years, a very bright mulatto, and would be taken 
for a WHITE BOY, if not closely examined. His hair is 
black and straight, &c. — New-Orleans True American, %lth 
August, Jy:JG." 

"•-MOO Reioard — Will be given for the apprehension of 
my negro (!) Edmund Kenney. He has straight hair, and 
complexion so nearly WHITE, that it is believed a stranger 
would suppose there zpas no African blood in Mm-. He was 
with my boy Dick a short time since in Norfolk, and offered 
him for sale, and was apprehended, but escaped under pre- 
tence of being a WHITE MAN. Andei-.son Bowles. 

Richmond Whig, 6th January, 1836." 

'• $50 Reward will be given for the apprehension and de- 
livery to me of the following slaves : Samuel, and Judy his 
wife, with their four children, belonging to the estate of 
Sacker Dubberly, deceased. 

I will give $10 for the apprehension of William Dubberly 
a slave belonging to the estate. William is about 19 years 
old, QUITE WHITE, and would not readily be mistaken 
for a slave. John T. Lane. 

obern Spectator, 13th March 1837." 

"S100 Reioard. — Ranaway from the subscriber, a bright 
mulatto man slave, named Sam. Light sam ; bltte i yes, 

ruddy complexion — is so WHITE as vefy easily to pass for 
a free WHITE MAX. Edwin Peck. 

Mobile, April 22, 1S37." 

<v $50 Reward. — I will give the above reward of fifty dol- 
lars for the apprehension and securing in any jail, so that I 
get him again, or delivering to me in Dandridge, E. Tenn. 
my mulatto boy named Preston, about twenty years old. It 
is supposed he will try to pass as -a, free WHITE MAN. 

John Roper. 

Oct. 12, 1833." 

" Ranaway from the subscriber, working on the plantation 
of Col. H. Tinker, a bright mulatto boy named Alfred. Alfred 
is about 18 years of v,<jc, pretty well grown, has blue eyes, 
light flaxen ha J la freckle. He will try to pass 

as FREE BORN. S. G. Stewart. 

Green County, Alabama." 

Mr. Paxton, a Virginia writer, tells us in his work on 
slavery, that " the best blood in Airginia flows in the veins of 
the slaves." 

Dr. Torrey, in his work on domestic slavery in the United 
States, p. 14, says : " While at a public house in Frederick- 



WHITE SLAVES. 33 

town, there came into the bar-voom on Sunday, a decently 
di'essed white man, of quite a light complexion, in company 
with one who was totally black. After they went away, the 
landlord observed that the white man was a slave. I asked 
him with some surprise how that could be possible \ To 
which he replied, that he was a descendant, by female ances- 
try, of an African slave. He also stated that not far from 
Fredericktown, there was a slave estate on which there were 
several white females, as of fair and elegant appearance as 
white ladies in general, held in legal bondage as slaves ! /" 

A -Missouri paper, reporting the trial of a slave boy, re- 
marks : " All the physiological marks of distinction which 
characterize the African descent, had disappeared. His skin 
was fair, his hair soft, straight, line and white, his eyes blue, 
but rather disposed to the hazel-nut color, nose prominent, 
the lips small and well formed, forehead high and promi- 
nent." 

In the summer of 1835, a slaveholder from Maryland ar- 
rested as his fugitive, a young woman in Philadelphia. A 
trial ensued, when it was most conclusively proved that the 
alleged slave, Mary Gilmorc, was the child of poor j 
parents, and had not a drop of African blood in her vein;;. 

A paper printed at Louisville, Ky., the " Emporium," re- 
lates a circumstance that occurred in that city, in the follow- 
ing terms. "A laudable indignation was universally mani- 
fested among our citizens on Saturday last, by the expo- 
sure of a woman and two children for sale at public auc' 
at the front of our principal tavern. The woman and chil- 
dren were as white as any of our citizens ; indeed, < 
scarcely ever saw a child with a fairer or clearer complexion 
than the younger one." — Niles's Register, June, 1821. 

Mr. Miles tells us in his Register, that Mr. Calhoun, the 
late Vice President, had related to him the case of a man 
"placed on the stand for sale as a slave, whose appearance 
in all respects gave him a better claim to the character of a 
WHITE MAN than most persons so acknowledged could 
ehow." — R 5th Oct. 1S34. 

We will now attempt to give the reader some idea of the 
extent of the trade — a trade in which human beings of every 
shade, from the purest white to the deepest black, are made 
articles of merchandise, and treated with cruelty little if any 
less than that which has made the African slave-trade the 
execration of the civilized world. 

" Dealing in slaves," says the Baltimore Register, "has 
become a large business ; establishments are made in several 

e 



34 AMERICAN SLAVE TRADE. 

places in Maryland and Virginia, at which they are sold like 
cattle : these places of deposit are strongly built, and well 
Supplied with iron thumb-screws and gags, and ornamented 
with cQwskins and other whips, oftentimes bloody." 

The advertisements of the Baltimore traders show that 
the Maryland Colonization Society, in their endeavors to 
suppress the .-lave trade, may find afield for their labors less 
distant, than the coast of Africa. We annex some samples. 

'• Austin Wbodfolk of Baltimore, wishes to inform the 
slaveholders of Maryland and Virginia, that their friend still 
lives to give cash and the highest price for negroes," <kc. 

" General Slave As ce. — Gentlemen planters from 

the South and others who wish to purchase negroes, would 
do well to give me a call. Lewis Scott." 

" Cash, for two hundred Negroes. — The highest cash prices 
will be paid for negroes of both sexes, by application to me 
or my agent at Booth's Garden. Hope H. Slater." 

■ New-Orleans. — A coppered, copper-fastened packet- 
brig Isaac Franklin, will sail on the 1st Feb. for Baltimore. 
Titos:: having servants to ship will do well by making early 
application to James F. Purvis," &c. 

Human flesh is now the great staple of Virginia. In the 
Legislature of this State in 1832, Thomas Ji.fferson Ran- 
dolph declared that Virginia had been converted into " one 
grand menagerie, where men an reared for the market like oxen 
for the slbambles." This same gentleman thus compared the 
foreign with the domestic traffic. " The trader (African) 
receives the slaves, a stranger in aspect, language, and man- 
ner, from the merchant who brought him from the interior. 
But here, sir, individuals whom the master has known from 
infancy — whom he has seen sporting in the innocent gam- 
bols of childhood — who have been i 1 to look to 
him for protection, tears 

into a strange country, among a strai : ■ p< sub) to 

tashm < ■ ''"• In my opi ion it i ' tse." 

Mr. C. F. Mi.: in the Virginia Convention of 

1S29, " The tables of the natural growth of the slave popu- 
lation demonstrate, when compared with the increase of its 
numbers in the Commonwealth for twenty years past, that 
an annual revenue of not less than n million and a half of 
dollars is derived from the exportation of a part of this popu- 
lation." — Debates j>- 99, 

Professor E. A. Andrews gives a conversation he had with 
a trador on board a steam-boat on the Potomac, in lS3v}. 



VIRGINIA. 35 

" In selling his slaves, N assures me be never sepa- 
rates families ; but that in purchasing them be is often com- 
pelled to do so, for that bis business is to purchase, and be 
must take such as are in the market. Do you often buy the 
wife without the husband 1 Yes, very often ; and frequent- 
ly, too, they sell me the mother, while they keep the children. 
1 have often known them takeaway the htf ant from the moth- 
er's breast, and heep it, while the]) sold her. Children from 
one to eighteen months old, are now worth about one hun- 
dred dollars."* 

The town of Petersburg in Virginia, seems to enjoy a 
large share of this commerce, judging from the advertise- 
ments of its merchants. 

" Cash for Negroes. — The subscribers are particularly anx- 
ious to make a shipment of negroes shortly. All persons who 
have slaves to part with, will do well to call as soon as pos- 
sible. Overly & Saunders." 

" The subscriber being desirous of making another ship- 
ment by the Brig Adelaide to New-Orleans, on the first of 
March, will give a good market price for fifty negroes from 
ten to thirty years old. Henry Davis." 

" The subscriber wishes to purchase owe hundred slaves, of 
both sexes, from the age of ten to thirty, for which he is dis- 
posed to give much higher prices than have heretofore been 
given. He will call on those living in the adjacent counties 
to teee any property. Ansley Davis." 

But of all the Virginia merchants, Mr. Collier of Rich- 
mond, seems to be the most enterprising. We give extracts 
from bis 

V Notice. — This is to inform my former acquaintances, and 
the public generally, that I yet continue in the SLAVE 
TRADE, at Richmond, Virginia, and will at all times buy 
and give a fair market price for, young 'negroes. Persons in 
this Stale, Maryland, or North Carolina, wishing to sell lots 
of negroes, are particularly requested to forward their wishes 
to me at this place. Persons wishing to purchase lots of ne- 
groes, are requested to give me a call, as I keep constantly 
on hand at this place, a great many for sale ; and have at 
this time the use of one hundred young negroes, consisting 
of boys, young men, and girls. I will sell at all times at a 
email advance on cost, to suit purchasers. I have comfortable 
rooms with a jail attached, for the reception of the negroes ; 



Slavery and the domestic slave trade in the United States, p. 417. 



36 AMERICAN SLAVE TRADE. 

and persons coming to this place to sell slaves, can be accom- 
modated, and every attention necessary will be given to have 
them well attended to ; and when it may be desired, the re- 
ception of the company of 'gentlemen dealing in slaves, will con- 
veniently and attentively be received. My situation is very 
healthyand suitable forthe business. Lewis A. Collier." 

Joseph Wood of Hamburg, South Carolina, a " gentle- 
man dealing in slaves," advertises that he " has on hand a 
likely parcel of Virginia negroes and receives new supplies 
every fifteen days." 

And what are the pecuniary results of this commerce t 
Mr. Mercer, as we have seen, estimated the annual revenue 
to Virginia from the export of human flesh, at at one million 
arid a half of dollars. But this was in 1S29, before the trade 
had reached its present palmy state. " The Virginia Times," 
in 1836, in an article on the importance of increasing the 
banking capital of the Commonwealth, estimates the num- 
ber of slaves exported for sale the " last twelve months," at 
forty thousand; each slave averaging six hundred dollars, 
and thus yielding a capital of twenty-pour millions, of 
which the Editor thinks, at least thirteen millions might by 
contributed for banking purposes/'' 

Let us now visit the " Metropolis of the Nation," the very 
heart of this mighty commerce in the bodies and souls of 
men. The District of Columbia, from its relative situation 
to the breeding St ts a convenient depot for the ne- 

groes, previous to their exportation ; and the non-interfer- 
ence of Congress, gives the traders " under the exclusive 
jurisdiction" of the Federal Government, as unlimited power 
over the treatment and stowage of their human cargoes, as 
their brethren enjoy, on the coast of Guinea. 

Hence large establishments have grown up upon the na- 
tional domain, provided with prisons for the safe-keeping of 
the negroes till a full cargo is procured ; and should at any 
time the factory prisons be insufficient, the public ones, erect- 
ed by Congress, are at the service of the dealers, and the 
United States Marshal becomes the agent of the slave trader ! 

It must be admitted, that the following pictures of the 
scenes witnessed in the District of Columbia, are drawn by 
impartial hands. So long ago as 1802, the grand jury of 
Alexandria complaining of the trade, remarked : " These 
dealers in the persons of our fellow-men, collect within this 
district from various parts, numbers of these victims of slave- 

* Niles's Register. 



DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 37 

ry, and lodge them in some place of confinement until they 
have completed their numhers. They are then turned out 
into our streets, and exposed to view loaded with chains, as 
though they had committed some heinous offence against out- 
laws. We consider it as a grievance that -citizens from a 
distant part of the United States, should be permitted to 
come within the District, and pursue a traffic fraught with 
so much misery to a class of beings entitled to our protec- 
tion, by the laws of justice and humanity; and that the in- 
terposition of civil authority cannot be had to prevent parents 
being wrested from their offspring, and childi-en from their 
parents, without respect to the ties of nature. We consider 
these grievances demanding legislative redress:" — that is, 
redress by Congress. 

In 1816, Judge Morcll of the Circuit Court of the United 
States, in his charge to the grand jury of Washington, ob- 
served, speaking of the slave trade : " The frequency with 
which the streets of the city had been crowded with manacled 
captives, sometimes on the Sabbath, could not fail to shock 
the feelings of all humane persons." 

The same year, John Randolph moved in the House of 
Representatives for a committee " to inquire inr.o the exist- 
ence of an inhuman and illegal traffic of slaves carried on, 
in, and through the District of Columbia, and report whether 
any or what measures are necessary for putting a stop to the 
same." The motion was adopted ; had it been made twen- 
ty years later, it would under the rules of the House, have 
been laid on the table, " and no further action had thereon." 

The Alexandria Gazette of June 22nd, 1827, thus describes 
the scenes sanctioned by oar professedly republican and 
Christian Legislature : " Scarcely a week passes without 
some of these wretched creatures being driven through our 
streets. After having been confined, and sometimes mana- 
cled in a loathsome prison, they are turned out in public 
view to take their departure for the South. The children 
and some of the women are generally crowded into a cart or 
wagon, while others follow on foot, not unfrequently hand- 
cuffed and chained together. Here you may behold fathers 
and brothers leaving behind them the dearest objects of af- 
fection, and moving slowly along in the mute agony of de- 
spair — there the young mother sobbing over the infant 
whose innocent smiles seem but to increase her misery. — 
From some you will hear the burst of bitter lamentation, 
while from others, the loud hysteric laugh breaks forth, de- 
noting still deeper agony." 



38 AMERICAN SLAVE TRADE. 

In 182S, a petition for the suppression of this trade was 
presented to Congress, signed by more than one thousand in- 
habitants of this District. 

In 1S29, the Grand Jury of Washington made a commu- 
nication to Congress, in which they say, " Provision ought 
to be made to prevent purchasers for the purpose of removal 
and transportation, from making the cities of the District, 
depots for the imprisonment of the slaves they collect. The 
manner in which they are brought and confined in these 
places, and carried through our streets, is necessarily such as 
to excite the most painful feelings. It is believed that the 
whole community would be gratified by the interference of 
Congress for the suppression of these receptacles, and the 
exclusion of this disgusting traffic from the District." 

In 18'30, the " Washington Spectator" thus gave vent to 
its indignation. 

" The slave trade in the Capital. — Let it be known to the 
citizens of America, that at the very time when the proces- 
sion which contained the President of the United States ami 
his Cabinet was marching in triumph to the Capitol, another 
kind of procession was marching another way ; and that 
consisted of colored human beings, handcuffed in pairs, and 
driven along by what had the appearance of a man on hoi - se- 
back ! A similar scene was repeated on Saturday last ; a 
drove consisting of males and females, chained in couples, 
starting from Roly's tavern on foot for Alexandria, where 
with others they are to embark on board a slave ship in wait- 
ing to convey them to the South. Where is the O'Connell 
in this Republic that will plead for the emancipation of the 
District of Columbia !" 

The advertisements of the dealers, indicate the extent of 
the traffic. The National Intelligencer of the 2Sth March, 
1836, printed at Washington, contained the following adver- 
. snts. 
" Cash for • Ired Negroes, including both sexes, from 

ten to twenty-five years of* age. Persons having likely ser- 
vants to dispose of, will find it their interest to give us a call, 
as we will give higher prices in cash, than any other pur- 
chaser who is now or may hereafter come into the market. 
Franklin & Amfield, Alexandria." 
" Cash for three hundred Negroes. — The highest cash price 
will be given by the subscriber, for negroes of both sexes, 
from'the ages of twelve to twenty-eight. 

William H. Williams, Washington." 



AMERICAN SLAVE TRADE. 39 

" Cash for four hundred Negroes, including both sexes,from 
twelve to twenty-five years of age. 

James H. Birch, Washington City." 

" Cash for Negroes. — We will at all times give the high- 
est prices in cash for likely young negroes of both sexes, 
from ten to thirty years of ao:e. 

J. Wr Neal & Co. Washington." 

Here we find three traders in the District, advertising in 
one day for t ted re hundred negroes, and a fourth offering to 
buy an indefinite number. 

In a later number of the Intelligencer, we find the follow- 
ing. 

" Cash for Negroes. — I will give the highest price for like- 
ly negroes from ten to twenty-five years of age. 
, George Kephart." 

" Ce/sh for Negroes. — I will Q,ive cash and liberal prices 
for any number of young and likely negroes, from eight to 
forty years of age. Persons having negroes to dispose of 
will find it to their advantage to give me a call at my resi- 
dence on the corner of Seventh-street and Maryland Avenue, 
and opposite Mr, Williams' private jail. 

William H. Richards." 

" Cash for Negroes. — The subscriber wishes to purchase a 
number of negroes for the Louisiana and Mississippi market. 
Himself or an agent at all times can be found at his jail, on 
Seventh-street. Wm. H. Williams." 

The unhappy beings purchased by these traders in human 
flesh, men and women, and children of eight years old, are 
sent to the South, either over land in cofHes, or by sea, in 
crowded slavers. Fostered by Congress, these traders lose 
all sense of shame; and we have in the National Intelligen- 
cer, the following announcement of the regular departure of 
three slavers, belonging to a single factory. 

"Alexandria and New-Orleans packets. — Brig Tribune, 
Samuel C. Bush, master, will sail as above on the 1st Janu- 
ary — Brig Isaac Franklin, Wm. Smith, master, on the 15th 
January — Brig Uneas, Nath. Boush, master, on the 1st Feb- 
ruary. They will continue to leave this port on the 1st and 
15th of each month, throughout the shipping season. Ser- 
vants thai are intended, to he shipped, will at any time be recei- 
ved for safe-keeping at twenty -fire, cents a day. 

John Amfield, Alexandria." 

This infamous advertisement of the regular sailing of three 
slavers, and the offer of the use of the factory prison, appears 
in one of the jm'icipal journals of the United States. Its 



40 AMERICAN SLAVE TRADE. 

proprietor has several times been chosen printer to Congress, 
and there is no reason for believing that he has ever lost the 
vote of a northern member for this prostitution of his col- 
umns. 

But the climax of infamy is still untold. This trade in 
blood; this buying, imprisoning, and exporting of boys and 
girls eight years old ; this tearing asunder of husbands and- 
wives, parents and children, is all legalized in virtue of au- 
thority delegated by Congress ! ! The 249th page of the 
laws of the city of Washington, is polluted by the following 
enactment, bearing date 2Sth July, 1831. 

" For a license to trade or traffic in slaves for profit, four 
hundred dollars." 

Such is the character and extent of the American slave 
trade, impudently and wickedly called by the Senate, " the 
coasting trade," — a trade protected and regulated by the 
very* government which in the Treaty of Ghent, with won- 
derful assurance, declared that " the traffic in* slaves is irre- 
concilable with the principles of justice and humanity." 

The government may be fairly said to protect the trade, 
when it refuses to exercise its constitutional power to sup- 
press it. The very fact that slave traders are licensed in the 
District, is a full and complete acknowledgement that there 
is authority competent to forbid their nefarious business. 
The continuance of the traffic under the immediate and " ex- 
clusive jurisdiction" of the National Government, stamps 
with disgrace every member of Congress who assents to it ; 
and more especially, and with peculiar infamy, those north- 
ern members who, for party purposes, vote that " Congress 
ought not in any icaylo interfere with slavery in the District 
of Columbia." 

But we are constantly told by the apologists of slavery that 
the American slave trade is beyond the constitutional con- 
trol of the 'Federal Government; yet that government abol- 
ished the African slave trade, and no human being ever ques- 
tioned its right to do so ] But whence was that derived ? 
Solely from the Sth Sec. of the 1st Art. of the Constitution, 
viz : — 

" Congress shall have power to regulate commerce with 
foreign nations, and among the several States." 

In virtue of this delegation of power, Congress has made 
it a capital ci'ime to carry on commerce in African slaves. 
Now that this legislative prohibition of the traffic is consti- 
tutional, is proved by the highest possible authority, even tho 
Constitution itself; for that instrument, after giving Con* 



AMERICAN SLAVE TRADE, 41 

gress power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, re- 
stricts it from abolishing the African slave trade before the 
expiration of twenty years.* To regulate, we are told, does 
not include the power to destroy ; yet it seems the power to 
regulate commerce with foreign nations does include the 
power to interdict an odious, cruel, and wicked branch of it. 
By what logic then will it be shown that the power to regu- 
late the commerce among the several States, does not include 
the power to interdict a traffic in men, women, and children % 
Is it more wicked, more base, more cruel, to traffic in Afri- 
can savages than in native born Americans — in white men, 
and women and children — in the offspring of our own citi- 
zens, and not uufrequently, of very distinguished citizens 1 
Yet it is this abominable commerce that our government fos- 
ters and protects. We have seen its watchful guardianship 
over this trade in its unceasing endeavors to obtain compen- 
sation from Great Britain for 2S7 slaves thrown by the winds 
and waves under her protection. Mr. Van Buren, our Min- 
ister in England, in an official note on this subject, (Feb. 25, 
1832,) remarked :— 

" The Government of the United States respecting the 
actual and unavoidable condition of things at home, while it 
most sedulously and rigorously guards against^ the further in- 
troduction of slaves, protects at the same time by reasonable 
laws the rights of the owners of that species of property in 
the States where it exists, and permits its transfer coastwise 
from one of these States to another, under suitable restric- 
tions to prevent the fraudulent introduction of foreign slaves." 

By the act of Congress of 2d March, 1S07, masters of ves- 
sels under 40 tons burthen, are forbidden to transport coast- 
wise from one port to another in the United States any per- 
son of color to be sold or held as a slave, under the penalty 
of $800 for each slave so transported. 

By the same act, masters of vessels, over 40 tons burthen 
sailing coastwise from one port to another, and intending to 
transport persons of color to he sold or held as slaves, must first 
make out duplicate manifests, specifying the names, sex, age, 

* The phraseology of this restriction shows that it was intended to limit 
the power to regulate commerce as well "among the several States" aa 
with foreign nations. The migration, or importation of such persons as any 
of the existing States shall think proper to a^mit, shall hot be prohibited by 
the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight." — (Art. 
I. Sec. 9.) If any State should think proper to admit slaves migrating from 
another State, it was not to be restrained fiom doing so till 1808. If it 
should think proper to import slaves from a foreign country, it might do so 
notwithstanding the wishes of Congress, till the same period. 



42 DUPLICITY OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. 

and stature, of the persons transported, and the names and 
residence of their owner or shipper. These manifests are 
to he delivered to the collector of the port who is to retain 
one, and to return the other to the master with " a permit, 71 
endorsed on it, " authorizing him to proceed to the port of 
destination." If the master presumes to transport a slave 
without such permit, not only is the vessel forfeited, hut the 
master is to pay a penalty of -$1000 for each slave shipped. 
On the arrival of the vessel at the port of destination, the 
manifest, with the permit, is to be handed to the collector, 
who thereupon is to grant a " permit" for the landing of the 
slaves, and if any are landed without such permit, the master 
forfeits one thousand dollars. So it seems Congress may 
prohibit the slave trade in vessels under forty tons ; but ac- 
cording to northern politicians, it would be unconstitutional 
to prohibit it in vessels over for y tons ; and according to the 
slaveholders, such a prohibition would cause the dissolution 
of the Union ! But alas ! the permission, regulation, and 
protection of this traffic is in perfect keeping with 

TlIE DUPLICITY OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IN REGARD 
TO THE SUPPRESSION OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 

The great struggle for the abstract principles of human 
liberty, in which our fathers engaged witli so much zeal, had, 
at the close of the revolutionary war, excited a very genei'al 
conviction of the injustice of slavery. When the convention 
appointed to form a Federal Constitution assembled, the 
northern and many of the southern delegates were disposed 
to give the new government such unqualified power over the 
commerce of the nation, as would enable it to abolish a traf- 
fic no less at variance with our republican professions than 
with the precepts of humanity and religion. A portion of 
the southern delegates however, insisted on a temporary re- 
striction of this power as the price of their adhesion to the 
Union ; and their threat of marring the beauty, symmetry, 
and strength of the fair fabric about to be erected by with- 
drawing from it the support of the States they represented, 
unfortunately induced the convention to yield to their wishes, 
and to insert in the Constitution a clause restraining Con- 
gress from abolishing the African slave trade for twenty 
years. Mr. Madison has left us the following history of this 
iniquitous clause. " The southern States would not have 
entered into the union of America without the temporary 
permission of that trade. The gentlemen from South Caro- 
lina and Georgia, argued in this manner — ' We have now 



DUPLICITY OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. 43 

liberty to import this species of property, and much, of the 
property now possessed has been purchased, or otherwise 
acquired in contemplation of improving it by the assistance 
of imported slaves. What would be the consequence of 
hindering us from it 1 The slaves of Virginia would rise in 
value and we should be obliged to go to your markets.' " — 
Debates in Virginia Convention. 

We have here the solution of much contradictory action 
on the part of the slaveholders in regard to this trade. It 
seems to have been early discovered that its abolition would 
be advantageous to the slave-breeders, but not to the slave- 
buyers. Owing to climate, soil, and productions, slave labor 
is less profitable in Maryland and Virginia, than in the more 
southern States ; hence, the greater demand for this labor in 
the latter States has, since the cessation of importation, 
caused a constant influx of slaves -from the former. The 
breeders in Maryland and Viginia have, for the most part, 
striven in good faith for the total suppression of the African 
trade ; while those who originally refused to enter the Union 
unless permitted for at least twenty years, to import their 
slaves directly from Africa, have since evinced very little de- 
sire to secure to their neighbors the monopoly of the market. 

Whenever the opponents of Abolition find it convenient 
to refer to -the action of the Federal Government on the sub- 
ject of slavery, they laud and magnify its horror of the Afri- 
can slave trade, and exultingly point to the law of Congress, 
branding it with the penalties of -piracy. And yet we are 
inclined to believe, that the conduct of our government in re- 
lation to this very subject, is one of the foulest stains attach- 
ed to our national administration. Has the trade been sup- 
pressed 1 Has the Federal Government in good faith en- 
deavored to suppress it % These are important questions, 
and wo shall endeavor to solve them by an appeal to facts 
and official documents. 

In a debate in Congress in 1819, Mr. Middletori of South 
Carolina, stated, that in his opinion, 13,000 Africans were 
annually smuggled into the United States. Mr. Wright of 
Virginia, estimated the number at 15,000 ! The same year, 
Judge Story of the Supreme Court of the United States, in 
a charge to a Grand Jury, thus expresses himself: — "We 
have but too many proofs from unquestionable sources, that 
it (the African trade) is still carried on with all the implaca- 
ble ferocity and insatiable rapacity of former times. Avarice 
has grown. more subtle in its evasions, and watches and sei- 
zes its piey with an appetite quickened rather than suppres- 



44 DUPLICITY OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. 

Bed by its guilty vigils. American citizens are steeped to 
their very mouths, (I can scarcely use too bold a figure,) in 
this stream of iniquity." 

On the 22d Jan. 1811, the Secretary of the Navy wroto 
to the commanding naval officer at Charleston. "1 hear, not 
without great concern, that the law prohibiting the importa- 
tion of slaves, has been violated infrequent instances, near St. 
Mary's, since the gun-boats have been withdrawn from that 
station." 

On the 14th March, 1814, the Collector of Darien, Geor- 
gia, thus wrote to the Secretary of the Treasury : — "I am in 
possession of undoubted information, that African and A 1 . 
India negroes arc almost daily illicitly introduced into Geor- 
gia, for settlement, or passing through it to the territories of 
the United States, for similar purposes. These facts are no- 
torious, and it is not unusual to see such negroes in the streets 
of St. Mary, and such too, recently captured by our vessels 
of war, and ordered for Savannah, were illegally bartered 
by hundreds in that city, for this bartering (or bonding, as it 
is called, but in reality selling,) actually took place before any 
decision has passed by the Court respecting them. I can- 
not but again express to you, sir, that these irregularities, 
and mocking of the laws by men who understand them, are 
such that it requires the immediate interposition of Congresa 
to effect the suppression of this traffic; for as things are, 
should a faithful officer of the Government apprehend such 
negroes, to avoid the penalties imposed by the law.-, the pro- 
prietors disclaim them, and i . _ . nt of the Executive 
viands a delivery of the same to him, who may employ them as 
he pleases, or effect a sale by way of hand for /he restoration of 
the negroes w?i / called on, so to do, which bond is un- 
derstood to he forfeited, as the amount of the hand is so much, 
less than the value of the property. After much fatigue, peril, 
and expense, eighty-eight Africans are seized and brought to 
the Surveyor to Darien ; they are demanded by the Govern- 
or's agent. Notwithstanding the knowledge which his Ex- 
cellency had that these very Africans were some weeks with- 
in six miles of his Excellency's residence, there was no ef- 
fort, no stir made by him, his agents or subordinate State 
officers, to carry the laws into execution ; but no sooner than 
it was understood that a seizure had been effected by an 
officer of the United States, a demand is made for them; 
and it is not difficult to perceive, that the very aggressors 
may, by a forfeiture of the mock bond, be again placed in 
possession of the smuggled property." 



IMPORTATION OF AFRICANS. 45 

In 1S17, General David B. Michell, Governor of Georgia, 
resigned the Executive chair, and accepted the appointment 
under the Federal Government, of Indian Agent at the Creek 
Agency. He was afterwards charged with being concerned 
in the winter of 1817 and 1818, in the illegal importation of 
Africans. The documents in support of the charge, and 
those also which he offered to disprove it, were placed by 
the President in the hands of Mr. Wirt, the Attorney Gen- 
eral of the United States, who on the 21st January, 1821, 
made a report on the same. From this report, it appears 
that no less than 94 Africans were smuggled into Georgia, 
and carried to Mitchell's residence. Mr. Wirt concludes 
his report with the expression of his conviction, " that. Gen. 
Mitchell is guilty of having prostituted his power as Agent 
for Indian Affairs at the Creek Agency, to the purpose of 
aiding and assisting in a conscious breach of the Act of Con- 
gress of 1807, in prohibition of the slave trade, and this from 
mercenary motives."* 

On the 22d May, 1817, the Collector at Savannah wrote 
to the Secretary of the Treasury : — " I have just received 
information from a source on which I can implicitly rely, 
that it has already become the practice to introduce into the 
State of Georgia across St. Mary's River, from Amelia Is- 
land, E. Florida, Africans who have been carried into the 
port of Ferdinauda. It is further understood, that the evil 
will not be confined altogether to Africans, but will be extend- 
ed to the worst class of West India Slaves." 

Captain Morris of the Navy, informed the Secretary of 
the Navy, (18th June, 1817,) — "Slaves are smuggled in 
through the numerous inlets to the westward, where the peo- 
ple are but too mucli disposed to render every possible assistance. 
Several hundred slaves are now at Galveston, and persona 
have gone from New-Orleans to purchase them." 

On the 17th April, 1818, the Collector at New-Orleans, 
wrote to the Secretary of the Treasury: — "No efforts of 
the officers of the Customs alone, can be effectual in prevent- 
ing the introduction of Africans from the westward : to put 
a stop to that traffic, a naval force suitable to those waters is 
indispensable ; and vessels captured with slaves ought not <o 
be brought into this port, wit to some other in the United States, 
for adjudication." We may learn the cause of this signifi- 
cant hint, from a communication made the 9th July, in the 
same year, to the Secretary, by the Collector at Nova-Ibera. 

■ — % 

* Senate papers, 1st Session, 17th Cong. No. 93. 



46 IMPORTATION OF AFRICANS. 

" Last summer I got out State warrants, and had negroes 
seized to the number of eighteen, which were part of them 
stolen out of the custody of the coroner ; the balance were con- 
demned by the District Judge, and the informers received 
their part of the nett proceeds from the State Treasurer. 
Five negroes that were seized about the same time, were 
tried at Opelousa in May last, by the same Judge. He de- 
cided that some Spaniards that were supposed to have set up 
a sham claim, stating that the negroes had been stolen from 
them on the high teas, (! !) should have the negroes, and that 
the persons who seized then should pay half the rosts, and the 
State of Louisiana the other. This decision had such an ef- 
fect as to render it almost impossible for me to obtain any 
assistance in that part of the country." 

The Secretary of the Treasury, in a letter to the Speaker 
of the House of Representatives, 20th January. 1S19, re- 
marked : — " It is understood that proceedings have been in- 
stituted under the State authorities which have terminated in 
the sale of persons of color illegally imported into the States 
of Georgia and Louisiana, during the years 1S17 and 181S. 
There is no authentic copy of the acts of the Legislatures of 
these States upon this subject in this department, but it is 
understood that in both States, Africans and other persons of 
color, illegally imported, are directed to be solo for the 

BENEFIT OF THE STATE."* 

We have now, we think, proved from high authority, that 
notwithstanding the legal prohibition of the slave trade, the 
people, the courts, and the Executive authority in the plant- 

* In 1835, the New-York Journal of Commerce asserted that vessels had 
been recently fitted out in that port for the African slave trade. 

The Cost. >;i Express of 17th December, 1838, t'ni- gives the substance, of 
the statements made hy Mr. Elliott Cresson, of the Pennsylvania Coloniza- 
tion Society, in a public address delivered a few days before in Boston : — 

"Out of 177 sl-iye sh arrive at Cuba every year, five-sixths are 

owned and fitted out from port9 in the t:.it''.l States; and the enormous pro- 
; from their v lyages remitted to this country. One house in New- 
York received lately t >r its share alone the sum of £-•">(). 000. Baltimore i9 
largely interested in this accursed traffic as well as New-Yoik — and e\en 
Boston, with all her religion and molality, does not disdain to increase her 
wealth by a participation in so damnable a business. A gentleman of the 
highest respectability lately informed Kfr. Cresson that, a sailor in this city 
told him that he had received several hundred dollars of hush money to make 
him keep silent, and when he mentioned the names of his employers the gen- 
tleman says he was actually afraid to repeal them, so high do they stand in 
society. A captain in the merchant service from New- York, was lately offered 
his own terms by two different houses provided he would undertake a slavs 
voyage." 

Of the truth of these statements we know nothing. 



IMPUNITY OF TRADERS. 47 

ing States, have afforded facilities for the importation of Af- 
ricans. It now becomes important to inquire how far the 
Federal Government has enforced the penalties imposed by 
the Act forbidding the trade. 

On the 7th January, 1S19, Joseph Nourse, Register of the 
Treasury, in an official document submitted to Congress, cer- 
tified that there were no records in the Treasury department 
of any forfeitures under the Act of 1807, abolishing the slave 
trade ! So that notwithstanding the thirteen or fifteen thou- 
sand slaves, said by southern members of Congress to be 
annually smuggled into the United States — notwithstanding 
American citizens were declared by a Judge of the Supreme 
Court to be " steeped to their very mouths in this stream of 
iniquity," not one single forfeiture had in eleven years reached 
the Treasury of the United States ! Mr. Nourse, however, 
states, that it was understood that there had been recently two 
forfeitures, one in South Carolina, and the other in Alabama. 
Respecting the first, we have no information ; of the latter, 
we are able to present the following extraordinary history. 

The Collector at Mobile, writing Nov, 15, ISIS, to the 
Secretary of the Treasury, remarks, " Should West Florida 
be given up to the Spanish authorities, both the American 
and Spanish vessels it is to be apprehended will be employed 
in the importation of slaves with an ultimate destination to 
this country ; and even in its present situation, the greatest 
facilities are afforded for obtaining slaves from Havanna and 
elsewhere through West Florida. Three vessels, it is true, 
were taken in the attempt last summer, but this was owin°* 
rather to ac ident than any well-timed arrangement to prevent 
the trade." 

These three vessels brought in 107 slaves. By what mis- 
take they were captured we are not informed, but another 
letter from the Collector shows us how the " accident" was 
remedied. " The vessels and cargoes and slaves have been 
delivered on bonds ; the former to the owners, and the 
slaves to three other persons. The Grand Jury found 
true bills against the owners of the vessels, masters and su- 
percargo — all ff whom have been discharged — why or where- 
fore, I cannot say, except that it could not be for want of 
proof against them." From this letter it is most probable 
that the forfeiture of which Mr. Nourse had heard, if any in 
fact occurred, was the collusive forfeiture of the Bonds.* 



* The documents we have quoted on this subject, are to be found in Re- 
ports of Committees. — 1st Sess. 21st Cong. No. 348. 



48 COLONIZATION AND 

We most freely acknowledge that so far as the statute 
book is to be received as evidence, there can be no question 
of the sincerity and zea! with which the Federal Government 
has labored to suppress the African slave trade : but laws do 
not execute themselves, and we shall now appeal to the stat- 
ute book, and to the minutes of Congress, to convict the 
Government of gross hypocrisy and duplicity. 

It is difficult to understand why men who are engaged in 
breeding slaves for the market, or why men who are employ- 
ed in buying and working slaves, should have any moral or 
religious scruples about the African trade ; and when we find 
political leaders professing to be ready to sacrifice the Union 
to secure the perpetuity of the American trade, we may sure- 
ly be excused for doubting the sincerity of their denuncia- 
tions against the foreign tral 

In the year 1817, a new and sudden zeal was excited in 
Congress for the abolition of the trade, and this zeal as we 
shali see, was the offspring of the efforts of Virginia -to colo- 
nize the free blacks. The legislature of that State had for 
years been anxious to get rid, not of the slaves, but of the 
free negroes. On the 1st January, 1S17, the Colonization 
Society, the result of Virginia policy, was organized at 
Washington, and immediately presented a memorial to Con- 
gress praying for national countenance.' The committee to 
whom this memorial was referred, reported (11th Feb.) two 
resolutions: — 1st, Calling on the President to enter into 
negotiations with foreign powers for the " entire and imme- 
diate abolition of the traffic in slaves ;" and 2nd, asking him 
to obtain the consent of Great Britain to our colonizing free 
people of color at Sierra Leone. Thus early was the cause 
of Colonization connected with the agitation in Congress 
about the slave trade ; a connexion from which, as we shall 
presently see, the Society reaped a very large pecuniary ad- 
vantage. The resolutions were not acted on, and the next 
session, Air. Mkrcer, regarded in Virginia as the father of 
the Society, succeeded in getting a vote of the House (Dec. 
30th, 1817,) instructing the committee on the memorial from 
the Society, to report on the expediency of rendering the 
laws against the slave trade inoi-e effectual. Of this commit- 
tee Mr. Mercer was himself the chairman ; and he recom- 
mended in his report, that the President should take meas- 
ures for procuring territory in Africa for colonizing 
free people of color with their own consent ; and that armed 
/vessels should occasionally be sent to Africa for the purpose 
of interrupting the trade. The suggestions of the commit- 



THE SLAVE TRADE. 49 

tee were not adopted, but the ensuing session, (3d March, 
1819,) a new act against the slave trade was passed, which 
gave " a local habitation" to the present colony of Monrovia ; 
and was equivalent to a liberal and national grant to tbe So- 
ciety. By this act, the President was authorized to restore 
to their country, such Africans as might be captured on board 
of slavers, or illegally introduced into the United States ; and 
he was to appoint agents on the coast to receive them. Mr. 
Monroe, then President of the United States, was a zealous 
colonizationist, and was afterwards placed at the head of the 
Auxiliary Society. Let us see what nse he made of the 
powers entrusted to him by the act of 1819. Many years 
after, an inquiry was instituted in Congress as to the expend- 
itures under this law, and the Secretary of the Navy (1830,) 
reported that " 252 persons* of this description (recaptured 
Africans,) have been removed to the settlement) provided by 
the Colonization Society on the coast of Africa ; and that 
there had been expended therefor, the sum of two hundred 
and, sixty-Jour thousand seven hundred and ten dollars. * * * 
The practice has been to furnish these persons with provis- 
ions for a period of time after being landed in Africa, vary- 
ing from six months to one year ; to provide them with 
houses, arms, and ammunition ; to pay for the erection of 
fortifications, for the building of vessels for their use, and in 
short to render all the aid required for the founding and sup- 
port, of a colonial establishment^ 

A report from Amos Kendall, Fourth Auditor of the 
Treasury, discloses more particularly the manner in which 
the " Act in addition to the Acts prohibitmg the slave trade," 
Was made subservient to the purposes of the Colonization 
Society. 

" In May, 1822, the Secretary of the Navy directed that 
ten liberated Africans should be delivered to Mr. J. Ashmun, 
for transportation to Africa. The Secretary authorized him 
to take out at the expense of the Gorernment, 15,000 hard 

We linve not been able to ascertain from what sources these Africans. 
were obtained, but that they were not all of them trophies of the zeal of our 
cruisers in the cause of humanity, appears from the following extracts from 
official documents. " There are now in the charge of the Marshal of Geor- 
gia, 243 Africans taken out of a South American privateer, the " General 
Ramirez," wkose crew mutinied., and hrongld the vessel into St* Mary'*. 
Georgia. — Letter of Sec'y of Navy, 7th Feb'y, 132-1. " A decision of the 
Supreme Court in the case of the 'General Ramirez,' placed under the con- 
trol of the Government from 125 to 130 Africans, who were brought into 
Georgia, and arrangements are ranking to send them to the Agency.'" — 
(Liberia.) — Report of Sec'y of Navy, Dec. 2d, 1825. 

D 



50 FOREIGX NEGOTIATIONS 

brick, 5,000 feet or assorted timber, 30 baiTels of ship bread, 
eight of tar, four of pitch, four of rosin, and two o£ turpen- 

J"| }"W"» * ^ * ^ ^ ^ * ~& 

la the simple grant of power to an agent to receive recap- 
tured negroes, it requires broad construction to find a grant 
of authority to colonize them, to build houses for them, to 
furnish them with fanning utensils, to pay instructefs to 
teach them, to purchase ships for their commerce, to build 
forts for their protection, to supply them with arms and mu- 
nitions, and to employ the army avd navy in their defence.*" 

It cannot be denied that the friends of Colonization had 
great encouragement to proceed in their warfare against the 
slave trade. Accordingly Mr. Mercer, as the chairman of 
the committee to whom a memorial from the Society had 
been referred, reported (May 9th, 1820,) a Bill iururporatinu' 
the Society, and another making the .shire trade, 'piracy; and 
likewise two resolutions, — the first requesting the President 
to negotiate with foreign powers,, " on the means of effecting 
ana-lire and immediate abolition of the slave trade;" and 
another requesting him to make such use of the public armed 
vessels as may aid the efforts of the Colonization §ociety± 
The first resolution was adopted, and the consideration of 
the other postponed. A few days after, (May 15th,) the Act 
making the African slave trade piratical, was passed. But 
laws do not execute themselves : and if any slave trader has 
suffered death in the United States as a pirate, we confess 
our ignorance of the fact.t 

c< rtainly required some little assurance in the House 
of Representatives, thus to order a negotiation with foreign 
powers, for the suppression of the. trade, when the Federal 
< fovcrnment had itself been so remiss in its efforts, that both 
Houses of the British Parliament had, the year before, (July 

* Senate Documents. 2 Seas. 2 Cong. 

[b 1820, a slave vessel, the Science, fitted but at New York, and com- 
manded by Adolphe Lacoste of Charleston, South Carolina, was captured on 
•1;.' coast of Africa, by the United States Ship,. Cyane, and Lacoste sent home 
for trial. The trial took place in the Circuit Court of the United States, be-; 
fore Judge Story, The evidence was full anfl unequiyoqalj Lacoste was 
convicted', and sentenced to five years' imprisonhpent, and to the payment of 
a fine of $3,000. Had. tSie crime been committed a few, months later, the 
penalty would have been death, under the new lajv, declaring the trade pira* 
cy. Lacoste received a .<'./'' pardon from the President, arid the reader ma \ 
< ". whether had he been convicted as a pirate, Lis life would hava 
been much in danger. The reasons assigned forthe paidon, were youth, prp« 
yious good character, and an aged mother. — Nlfes's Semper, April £(v. 
1822. 



A30LT THE SLAVE TRADE. 51 

1819,) addressed the Prince Regent, praying him to renew 
" his beneficent endeavors, more especially with the Gov- 
ernments of France and the United States of America, for the 
effectual attainment of an object we all profess to have in 
view :" and a negotiation had already been actually com- 
menced with our Government, proposing to concede " to 
each other's ships of war, a qualified right of search, with a 
power of detaining the vessels of either State, with, slaves 
actually on hoard:"* and a positive refusal to this proposal 
had already been returned. There is no evidence that our 
Government ever took a single measure in consequence of 
this resolution ; and under all the circumstances of the case, 
it is not uncharitable to believe, that it was intended to save 
appearances. 

We must now beg the reader's attention to .a new act, in 
this farce of suppressing the slave trade. 

In 1814, our government concluded a Avar with Great 
Britain, and in the treaty of peace, gave its assent to the fol- 
lowing article. " Whereas the traffic in slaves is irreconci- 
lable with the principles of humanity and justice ; and where- 
as His Majesty and the. United States are desirous of con- 
tinuing their efforts to promote its entire abolition, it is here- 
by agreed, that both the contracting parties shall use their 
bsst endeavors to accomplish so desirable an object." 

On the 29th January, 1823, Mr. Stratford Canning, tha . 
British Minister at Washington, addressed a letter to the 
Secretary of State, reminding him of this pledge, and calling 
on the American Government either to assent to the plan 
proposed by Great Britain, or to suggest sonic other efficient 
one in its place. After the reception of this letter, and be- 
fore the return of an answer, the following resolution was 
passed (2Sth Feb.) by the House of Representatives, viz. 

" Resolved, that the President of the United Slates be re- 
quested to enter upon and prosecute from time to time, such 
negotiations with the several maritime powers of Europe and 
America, as he may doem expedient, for the effectual aboli- 
tion of the African slave trade, and its ultimate denunciation, 
as piracy, vjuler Iks laws of nations, by the consent of the civ- 
ilized world.**: ■ 

The British- Minister was then informed, in answer to his- 
letter, that the plan proposed by the United States was a 
mutual stipulation to annex the penally of piracy to the of- 
fence of participating in the trade,., by the citizens and suhs 

* Letter from Lord Ca.rtlcr.eagh to Mr. Ru.h, June 20, 1818, 



f>2 FOREIGN NEGOTIATIONS 

jects of the two parties. Mr. Canning replied, that " Great 
Britain desire^ no other, than that any of her subjects who 
so far defy the laws, and dishonor the character of their 
country as to engage in a trade of blood, proscribed not more 
by the act of the legislature, than by the national feeling, 
should be detected and brought to justice even by foreign 
hands, and from under the protection of her flag." He nev- 
ertheless urged a limited concession of the right of search, 
as the only practical cure of the evil; and he communicated 
the fact, that so late as January, 1822, it was stated officially 
by the Governor of Sierra Leone, " that the fine rivers of 
Nunez and Pongas were entirely under the control of rene- 
gade European, and American slave traders." He then pro- 
posed that a mutual right of search should be conceded, to 
be confined to a fixed number of cruisers on each side ; to 
be restricted to certain parts of the ocean ; and that to pre- 
vent abuses, these cruisers should act under regulations pre- 
pared by mutual consent ; and moreover, that this conces- 
sion should be made only for a short, time, that if found in- 
convenient in practice, it might be discontinued.* 

But the Republic stood on its dignity, and would not con- 
descend to yield a concession which ( rreat Britain, France, 
Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and 
Sardinia, have thought it no degradation to make in the cause 
of humanity. 

But still the American Government was very anxious that 
every man of every nation, who engaged in the traffic of 
slaves on the coast of Africa, (not in the District of Colum- 
bia,) should be hung by the neck till he was dead ; and forth- 
with, in obedience to the resolution of 2Sth February, des- 
patches were forwarded to the Cabinets of France, Spain, 
Portugal, Russia, the Netherlands, Buenos Ayres, and Co- 
lumbia, announcing the desire of the United States to de- 
clare the trade piracy, by the common consent of nations. 

It is generally understood, that a pirate is an enemy to the 
human race, and may be put to death by any government in 
whose hands he may chance to fall. If this was not the pur- 
, port of the proposition of the House of Representatives, that 
the trade should be denounced " as piracy under the laws 
of nations, by the consent of the civilized world," we may 
>well ask, what did it mean I 

On the 24th June, 1S23, instructions were forwarded to 

■ from Mr- Stiy.'.foi(l Canning to ihe Secretary of State, 13th ApriJ, 
1828. 



ABOUT THE SLAVE TRADE. 53 

our Minister in England, authorizing him to conclude a 
treaty with Great Britain on the subject of the slave tiade, 
on certain conditions. " The draft of a convention," says 
the Secretary of State, "is herewith enclosed, which, IF the 
British Government should agree to treat upon this subject, 
on the basis of a legislative, prohibition of the slave trade by 
both parties under the penalties of piracy, you are authori- 
zed to propose and conclude." 

Now it should be remembered, that at this time the trade 
was not piratical by the British laws, and the English Minis- 
try could not make it so by treaty. We therefore proposed 
a condition with which possibly, they might not have it in 
their power to comply. The ministry, however, when made 
acquainted with the condition, felt confident of the acquies- 
cence of Parliament. " The British Plenipotentiaries," says 
Mr. Rush, in his letter to the Secretary of State, " gave their 
unhesitating consent to the principle of denouncing the traf- 
fic as piracy, provided we could arrive at a common mind on 
all the other parts of the plan proposed." 

The treaty, nearly verbatim, with a draft sent from Wash- 
ington, was signed at London on the 13th March, 1824 ; and 
a few days afterwards, according to a previous understand- 
ing, and in fulfilment of the condition exacted by us, Parlia- 
ment passed an Act, declaring that all British subjects found 
guilty of slave trading, " shall suffer death without benefit of 
clergy, and loss of lands, goods, and chattels, as pirates, 
felons, and robbers upon the seas, ought to suffer." 

This treaty provided in substance, that the cruisers of 
either party on the coast of Africa, America, and the West 
Indies, might seize slaves under the flag of the other, and 
send them home to the country to which they belonged, where 
they should be proceeded against as pirates. So that in fact, 
the whole concession made by us to Great Britain, amounted 
to no more than permitting' her to arrest om pirates, and to 
deliver them to our courts for trial ; and in return, she grant- 
ed us precisely the same right with respect to her pira 

The treaty was submitted of course to the Senate for rati- 
fication, which, under the circumstances of the case, one 
would think, must have followed as a matter of course. The 
Senate, however, thought otherwise. The treaty was laid 
before them on the 30th of April ; but as they delayed to 
act upon it, the British Minister at Washington became un- 
easy, and on the 16th of May, addressed a letter to the Sec- 
retary of State, complaining of the postponement of the 
ratification, especially as the project of the convention had 



54 TREATY FOR THE SUPPRESSION 

m-'iginatcd with the United States ; and as Great Britain " had 
not hesitated an instant to comply with the preliminary act 
desired by the President," the legislative prohibition of the 
slave trade under the penalties of piracy. 

The President naturally feeling his own good faith com- 
promitted by the hesitation of the Senate, now sent them a 
confidential message, urging the ratification of the treaty. 
He remarked that the rejection of the treaty would subject 
the Executive, Congress, and the Nation, " to the charge of 
insincerity respecting the great result of the final suppression 
of the slave trade. To invite all nations with the statute of 
piracy in our hands, to adopt its principles as the law of na- 
tions, and yet to deny to all the common rights of search for 
the pirate, whom it would be impossible to detect without 
entering and searching the vessel, would expose us not sim- 
ply to the charge of inconsistency." 

The Senate after long debates, finally ratified the treaty, 
in a mutilated form. They struck out the word, "America," 
in the clause authorizing the seizure of slavers on " the coasts 
of Africa, America, and the West Indies." They also ex- 
punged the articles applying the provisions of the treaty, to 
vessels chartered, as well as owned by the citizens or sub- 
jects of either party ; and to the citizens or subjects of either 
party carrying on the trade under foreign, flags ; and they 
added an article authorizing either party to terminate the 
treaty at any time, on giving six months notice. 

It will have been observed from the documents we have 
quoted, that the slaves imported into the United States, have 
been chiefly introduced through the Spanish possessions on 
our southern frontiers ; slavei'S direct from Africa, rarely 
having the hardihood to enter our ports, raid discharge their 
cargoes ; while small vessels from the West Indies, have 
occasionally found their way into the southern waters. Of 
course the treaty as altered by the Senate, would afford but 
little interruption to this mode of stocking the plantations of 
Louisiana and the neighhoring States. 

As chartered vessels were excepted, our traders would only 
have to hire slavers instead of owning them, to be exempted 
from the hazard of being arrested and sent home for trial, 
by British officers ; or even if on board their own vessels, by 
running up a foreign flag, they would escape the penalties 
of piracy. 

The Bx'itish Cabinet refused to agree to the treaty thus 
despoiled of all its efficiency ; but with wonderful simplicity, 
they proposed to restrict the right of search on the coast of 



OF THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE. 55 

America, to the coast of the southern States. This proposi- 
tion was of course, promptly rejected by our Minister in 
England. 

The British Government vainly cherishing the hope, that 
the United .States might still consent to some combined ef- 
fort to destroy a trade they professed to abhor, offered 
through their Minister at Washington, to consent to a treaty, 
word for word the same as the one the Senate had ratified, 
with the single exception of restoring the word, " America." 
To this, Mr. Clay, then Secretary of State, replied, that 
" from the views entertained by the Senate, it would seem 
unnecessary and inexpedient any longer to continue the ne- 
gotiation respecting the slave convention, with any hope that 
it can assume a form satisfactory to both parties. That a 
similar convention had been formed with Columbia, on the 
10th December, 1824, excepting that the coast of America 
was excepted from its operation ; and vet, notwithstanding this 
conciliatory feature, the Senate had by a large majoiity re- 
fused to ratify it."* 

Negotiations have since been renewed on this subject ; 
and France has united with Great Britain, in urging the 
Cabinet al Washington to co-operate with them in putting 
an end to the African slave trade. The correspondence has 
not been made public, but we learn from the Edinburgh Re- 
view, for July, 1836, that the final answer of the American 
Government is, that "under no 'condition, in no form, and 
with no restriction, it-ill the I kited States enter into any con- 
vention, or treaty, or combined efforts of any sort or kind with 
other nations, for the suppression of this trade." 

To our readers we leave the task of making their own 
comments on this history of duplicity and hypocrisy ; and 
proceed to other details. 

On the 2nd November, 1825, the Columbian Minister at 
Washington, in the name of his Government, invited the 
United States to send delegates to a Congress of the South 
American Republics, to be held at Panama. In enumera- 
ting the topics to be discussed in the proposed Congress, he 
remarked ; " The consideration of means to be adopted for 
the entire abolition of the African slave trade, is a subject 
sacred to humanity, and interesting to the policy of the Amer- 
ican States. To effect it, their energetic, general, and uni- 

k The documents quoted on this subject, may be found in State Papers, 
l3t Sess. 19 Con^. Vol. 1. And in Reports of Committees, 1st Sew. 21 
Cons. Vol. 3. No. 348. 



56 INTERFERENCE FOR CUBA. 

form co-operation is desirable. At the proposition of the Uni- 
ted States, Columbia made a convention with them on this 
subject, which has not been ratified, by the Government of the 
United States. Would that America, which does not think 
politic what is unjust, contribute in union, and with common 
consent, to the good of Africa!" 

This document. was submitted to the Senate, and on the 
16th January, 1826, a committee of the Senate made a re- 
port in relation to it, in which they observe : " The United 
States have not certainly the right, and ought never to feel 
the inclination to dictate to others who may differ with them 
on this subject," (the slave trade,) " nor dp the committee 
see the expediency of insulting othez States by ascending the 
moral chair, and proclaiming from thence mere abstract prin- 
ciples, of the rectitude of which each nation enjoys the per- 
fect right of deciding for itself." 

The remarks made on this occasion by Mr. White, a Sen- 
ator from Tennessee, are worthy of observation. " In these 
new States (the S. American Republics,) some of them have 
put it down in their fundamental law, ' that whoever owns a 
slave shall cease to be a citizen.' Is it then fit that the Uni- 
ted States should disturb the quiet of the southern and west- 
ern States upon any subject connected with slavery '! I think 
not. Can it be the desire of any prominent politician in the 
United States, to divide us into parties upon the subject of 
slavery ] I hope not. Let us then cease to talk about slave- 
ry in this House; let us cease to negotiate upon any subject 
connected with it." 

We have seen most abundantly, that slaveholders have no 
objection to talk about slavery in Congress, or to negotiate 
about it with foreign nations, when the object is to guard their 
beloved institution from danger. It is only on the abomina- 
tions of the system, and the means of removing it, that every 
tongue must be mute, and the Federal Government passive. 
Turning from the consideration of our professions, as con- 
trasted with our conduct in regard to the suppression of the 
African slave trade, let us next take a view of 

The efforts of the Federal Government to prevent 
the abolition of slavery in the island of cuba. 

At the time of the Congress of Panama, Spain was still 
at war with her late colonies, and of course they were au- 
thorized by every principle of national law, as well as of self- 
defence, to carry their arms into the dominions of their ene- 
my-* Cuba was at a short distance* devoted to the royal 



INTERFERENCE FOR CUBA. 57 

cause, and affording a depot for the naval force ever ready 
to prey upon the commerce of the republics. Under these 
circumstances, Mexico and Columbia meditated the invasion 
and conquest of that island. But these republics, on achiev- 
ing their own freedom, had given freedom to their slaves ; 
and it was probable that they would manifest equal regard 
for human rights, were they to become masters of Cuba. 
These remarks will explain the following extract from the 
instructions given to the ministers appointed to represent the 
United States at the Congress of Panama. 

" It is required by the frank and friendly relations which 
we most anxiously desire ever to cherish with the new repub- 
lics that you should, without reserve, explicitly state that the 
United States have to.o much at stake, in the fortunes of Cu- 
ba, to allow them to see with indifference a war of invasion 
prosecuted in a desolating manner, or to see employed, in the 
purposes of such a war, one race of the inhabitants combat- 
ting against another, upon principles and with motives that 
must inevitably lead, if not to the extermination of one party 
or the other, to the most shocking excesses. The humanity 
of the United States in respect to the weaker, and which in 
such a terrible struggle would probably be the suffering por- 
tion, and the duty to defend themselves against the contagion 
of such near and dangerous examples, would constrain them, 
even at the hazard of losing the friendship of Mexico and Co- 
lumbia, to employ all the means necessary to their secu- 
rity."* 

The obvious meaning of all this, in plain English, divested 
of its diplomatic circumlocution, is simply that the Federal 
Government, in order to protect the slavery of the South 
from the shock it might receive from emancipation in Cuba, 
would, if necessaiy, go to war with our sister republics to 
prevent the invasion of that island. 

But so long as Spain refused to acknowledge the indepen- 
dence of her revolted colonies, the war would be continued, 
Cuba would be exposed to invasion, and the slave States to 
the " contagion " of emancipation. Hence the cabinet at 
Washington became exceedingly anxious to act the part of 
peace-makers. Our Minister at St. Petersburg was instruc- 
ted "to endeavor to engage the Bussian Government to 
contribute its best exertions towards terminating the exis- 
ting contest between Spain and her colonies. From the vi- 

* Letters of Instructions from Mr. Clay, Secretary of State, to Messrs. An- 
derson and Sargeant, 8th May, 1826. 



58 INTERFERENCE FOR CUBA. 

cinity of Cuba to the United States, its valuable commerce 
and the nature of its population, their government cannot be 
indifferent to any political change to which that island may 
be destined."* 

Spain also was implored, through the American Minister 
at Madrid, to be reconciled to her undutiful children. "It 
is not for the new republics," said Mr. Clay, in his letter (27th 
April, 1825,) to Mr. Everett, "that the President wishes you 
to urge upon Spain the expediency of concluding the war. 
If the war should continue between Spain and the new re- 
publics, and those islands (Cuba and Porto Rico) should be- 
come the object and theatre of it, their fortunes have such a 
connexion with the people of the United States, that they 
could not be indifferent spectators ; and the possible contin- 
gencies of a protracted war might bring upon ike Government 
of the United States duties and obligations, the performance of 
which, however painful it should b<\ they might not be at libi r- 
ty to decline. ," t 

The proposed invasion was abandoned; but the fears of 
our Government were not allayed. The war .continued, and 
gome contingency arising from it, might give liberty to the 
tens of thousands in Cuba pining in bonds. A new attempt 
was made to induce Spain to remove the danger by conclu- 
ding the war. On the 22d October, 1829, Mr. Van Buren 
then Secretary of State, instructed Mr. Van Ness, our Min- 
ister in Spain, to press upon that court a reconciliation with 
the South American republics. "Considerations," he re- 
marked, "connected with a certain class of our population) make 
it the interest (if the southern section of the I nion, that no at- 
tempt should be made in that island to throw off the yoke of 
Spanish dependence; the first effect of which would be the 
sudden emancipation of a, numerous slave population, whose re- 
sult could not but be very sensibly felt upon the adjacent shores 
of the United States." 

Fortunate it is for the cause of humanity, that the great- 
est republic upon earth had not the power to prevent "the 
sudden emancipation of a numerous slave population " in the 
British West Indies, on the 1st of August, 1838; "whose re- 
sult,"blessed be God, is and will be "very sensibly felt on the 
adjacent shores of the United States." 

The subject of the Panama mission was debated at great 
length in both Houses of Congress, and frequent allusions 

* Letters from Mr. Clay to Mr. Middleton, 10th May, 18:25. 
t Senate Documents, 1st Sess. 19 Cong, vol, 3. 



AVOWALS IN CONGRESS. 59 

were made by the speakers to Cuba. Let us hearken to the 
sentiments expressed by some of our republican legislators. 

Mr. Randolph of Virginia : " Cuba possesses an immense 
neoro population. In case those States (Mexico and Colum- 
bia) should invade Cuba at all, it is unquestionable that thia 
invasion will be made with this principle, — this genius of 
universal emancipation, — this sweeping anathema against 
the white population in front, — and then, sir, what is the sit- 
nation of the southern States ?" 

Mr. Johnson of Louisiana: "We know that Columbia 
and Mexico have long contemplated the independence of 
that island (Cuba.) The final decision is now to be made, 
and the combination of forces and plan of attack to be formed. 
What, then, at such a crisis, becomes the duty of the Gov- 
ernment ? Send your ministers instantly to this diplomatic 
assembly, where the measure is maturing. Advise with 
them — remonstrate — menace, if necessary, against a step 
so dangerous to us, and perhaps fatal to. them." 

Mr. Berrien of Georgia : " The question to be determined 
i6 this ; With a due regard to the safety of the southern 
States, can you suffer these islands (Cuba and Porto Rico) to 
pass info the hands of JiUCANIERS, drunk with their new- 
born liberty I If our interests and our safety shall require 
us to say to these new republics, Cuba and Porto Rico must 
remain as they are, we are free to say it, and by the bless u: 
of God and the strength of our arms, to enforce the declara- 
tion ; and let me say to gentlemen, these high considerations 
do require it. The r /^interests of the South demand it." 

These new republics were stigmatized by this honorable 
gentleman as bucaniers ; not that they were robbers, but be- 
cause they had ceased to rob the poor and helpless ; and the 
evidence of their being drunk with liberty, was their j)racti- 
cal acknowledgement of the principles of human rights, pro- 
fessed in our declaration of independence. 

Mr. Floyd of Virginia : " So far as I can see, in all its 
bearings, it (the Panama Congress) looks to the conquest of 
Cuba and Porto Rico ; or, at all events, of tearing them from 
the crown of Spain. The interests, if not safety of our own 
country, would rather require us to interpose to prevent such 
an event, and I would rather take up arms to prevent, than 
to accelerate such an occurrence." — Congressional Delates, 
2d vol. 

The facts and sentiments we have now exhibited, prove 
beyond cavil, that this mighty republic volunteered to solicit 
the aid of foreign monarchs to perpetuate slavery in Cuba, 



GO HISTORY OF HAYTI. 

and was strongly disposed to incur the hazard and calamities 
of war in the cause, — not of liberty, hut of bond 

Having noticed our watchful guardianship over Cuba, we 
will next advert to 

The hostility of the Federal Government to Hayti. 

To do justice to this part of our subject, we must beg the 
patience of our reader while we briefly lay before him a few 
historical facts. 

The Island of St. Domingo was one of the most valuable 
colonies belonging to the crown of France. It is about 450 
miles long, and 150 wide. Its population in 1790, was esti- 
mated as follows : 

White inhabitants, 42,0 

free colored inhabitants, 44,000 

Slaves, 600,000 • 



Total, .000 

Of the free colored inhabitants, numerically equal with the 
whites, many were men of education and property, landed 
proprietors, and the holders of slaves. Still they were de- 
barred from all political privileges on account of their com- 
plexion. At the commencement oi' the French Revolution, 
the National Assembly abolished this discrimination on ac- 
count of color, and gave the free blacks in the colonies, 
same civil rights that were possessed by their white brethren. 
The pride of the latter led them to refuse submission to this 
humiliating decree of the mother country, and a civil war 
between the whites and the free blacks, ensued. No inter- 
ference whatever with the rights of slaveholders as such, had 
at this time been attempted, either in France or the colony; 
and the dissensions which convulsed the island, tor a ! 
time related exclusively to the political condition of the : 
colored population. In August, L791, a partial insurrection 
of the slaves occurred, favored by the quarrels of their i 

In some instances the free blacks united with tin- 
whites, in their efforts to suppress the insurrection, and in 
others, they availed themselves o{ the aid oi' the revolted 
. linst the planters. 
In 1792, the French Government sent over three commis- 
sioners with 6000 troops, to enforce their decree respecting 
the free blacks, and to restore order. Many of the planters, 
however, still resisted; while others took sides with the 
Government, and the distractions of the island were now 
aggravated by a civil war betweon the whites tkentselves. 



HISTORY 07 IIAYTI. 61 

A purl ion of tho planters, abhorring tho attempt of the 
Government to elevate the free Macks to a political equality 
with themselves, now intrigued with Great Britain to seize 
upon the island, and thus to save them from the degrading 
consequences of republican principles. In compliance with 
their invitation, conveyed through their agent, ML Charm illy, 
an expedition was fitted out at Jamaica, for the capture of 
St. Domingo ; and on the L9th Sept., L 793, arrived at Jere- 
mie. Only a few days before the appearance of the British 
fleet on the coast, one of the French commissioners, who 
bappened'at the moment to be acting alone, in the absence 
of his colleagues, having received intelligence of the intended 
invasion, and knowing the disaffection of the planters, issued 
a hasty proclamation, giving freedomjo all the slaves, as the 
only means of preserving the colony from conquest.* 

The free negroes and the manumitted slaves united in de- 
fending tho island against the invaders, while an army of 
2000 of the white inhabitants, ranged themselves under the 
British standard. Tho French commissioners soon after re- 
turned to France ; great numbers of the planters emigrated ; 
and the island was virtually abandoned to the blacks, except 
so much of it as was occupied by tho British troops. These 
troops wore from time to time reinforced by detachments 
from Europe and the West Indies — but in vain. The blacks 
under Toussaint, who was appointed by the ( rovernment at 
home, " Governor General of the armies of St. Domingo," 
continued the contest for about five years, and finally suc- 
ceeded in driving the English from the island. Britain be- 
in^ in the meantime at war with' France, her naval forces 
prevented all intercourse between the colony and the mother 
country : ard the blacks thus left to themselves, declared 
themselves independent on the 1st of July, 1798, and organ- 
ized the Government of Hayti. 

The peace of Amiens afforded Bonaparte an opportunity 
to attempt the subjugation of the island, and the reduction 
of its inhabitants to slavery. 

Early in .January, 1S02, a French army of 20,000 men 
were landed at St. Domingo, and various reinforcements 
afterwards l\ >1 lowed. 

The war was waged with atrocious cruelty on the part of 
the French, and the blacks, aided by the climate, succeeded 
in destroying about 40,000 of their enemies in eleven months ; 



* The ensuing year, 1794, by a tlecrr-e of the National Assembly, slavery- 
was formal!*/ abolished throughout all the French colonies. 



62 HOSTILITY TO HAYTI. 

and on the 19th of November, 1S02, the wrecks of the in- 
vading army surrendered! to Dessalines, the black chief. 
.Since that time, Hayti has continued an independent nation, 
perfectly inoffensive in all. its foreign relations ; and its en- 
tire sovereignty is at present fully acknowledged by both 
France and England, and undisputed by any power on earth. 

It is now important to inquire, what has been the conduct 
of the United States towards this heroic republic ? 

Twelve years after slavery had been abolished by a decree 
of the French Government ; after the expulsion of the armies 
of England and France ; when for three years net a hostile 
foot had pressed the soil of Hayti; when a.regularly organ- 
ized government was in full operation ; and without one 
solitary cause of. complaint against the new State, the Amer- 
ican Congress passed an act, (28th Feb. 1806,) " to suspend 
the commercial intercourse between the United States and 
certain parts of the island of St. Domingo." These certain 
parts wcve defined in the act, to be such parts as were not 
"in the possession and under the- acknowledgement of 
France ;" and of course included the whole island. As there 
was at this time no war in fact, between Hayti and France, 
and the latter was prevented by the naval superiority of Eng- 
land, and her own continental wars, from sending a single 
soldier to Hayti; the sole object of- this act, was to distress 
and harass the Haytians by depriving them of the bread- 
stufls and other necessaries they were accustomed to receive 
from this country. It was a piece of wanton cruelty, unre- 
quired by the obligations of neutrality ; and demanded by 
France in a tone of arrogance, which would have secured its 
rejection, had not the intended-victims been Had-. Bona- 
parte, irritated by the loss of his army, and the defeat of his 
designs upon Hayti, resolved to starve, if possible, a people 
whom he could not conquer; and he found in the Federal 
Government, a willing instrument of his vengeance. His Min- 
ister at Washington, in a letter to the Secretary of State, de- 
manded an immediate cessation of the commerce between 
the citizens of the United States and " the rebels of St. Do- 
mingo — that race of African slaves, the reproach and the 
refuse of nature ;" and he enforced his demand with the in- 
formation ; — "The Emperor and King, my master, expects 
■ i . >in the dignity and candor of the Government of the Union, 
an end be put to it promptly."* The letter was written 
in January ; and in February the act required was passed, 
and continued in force for two years. 

* American State papers. 5th vol. p. 154. 



CONGRESS TO PANAMA. 63 

The invitation to the United States to send ministers to 
the Congress of Panama, has been already mentioned. In 
the document conveying the invitation, k was remarked : 
" On what basis the relations of Hayti, and other parts of 
our hemisphere that shall hereafter be in like circumstances, 
are to be placed, is a question simple at first view, but attend- 
ed with serious difficulties when closely examined. These 
arise from the different manner of regarding Africans, and 
from their different rights in Hayti, the United States, and 
in the American States; .This question will be determined 
at the Isthmus. 

The invitation was accepted, and the instructions of our 
ministers contained the following : — " Under the actual cir- 
cumstances ofTIayti,the President doesnot think that it would 
be proper at this time to recognize it as a new State. "t This, 
be it remembered, was just a quarter of a century since the 
Haytians hid declared and maintained their independence, 
and at a moment when they were enjoying the blessings and 
exercising the prerogatives of an independent State, and at 
peace with all the world. And what motive prompted the 
United States thus to exert ks influence to prevent the Con- 
gress of Panama from recognizing Hayti " as a new State V 
— none other than the apprehension that the admission of a 
palpable truth, the independence of a black Republic, would 
prove dangerous to the perpetuity of American slavery. Is 
this slander*? Let the members of Congress speak for th 
selves. The following sentiments were elicited in the de- 
bate on the Panama mission. 

Mr. Berrien of Georgia : — " Consistently with our own 
safety, can the people of the South permit the intercourse 
which would result from the establishing relations of any 
sort with Hayti 1 Is the emancipated slave, his hands yet 
reeking" (thirty-two years after slavery had been abolished 
by the French Government) " in the blood of his murdered 
master, to be admitted into their ports, to spread the doc- 
trines of insurrection, and to strengthen and invigorate- them, 
by exhibiting in his own person an example of successful re- 
volt 1 Gentlemen must be sensible — this cannot be.. The 
great principle of self-preservation will be arrayed against it. 
I have been educated in sentiments of habitual revorence for 
the Constitution of the United States : I have been taught 
to consider the union of these States as essential to their 

* Senate Documents. 1st Sess. 19 Cong, vol. III. f Letter of Mr. Clay, 
Secretary of State, 3th May, 13. 'G. 



64 OPINIONS IN CONGRESS 

safety. The feeling is nowhere more universal or more 
.strong than among the people of the South. But they have 
a stronger feeling — need I name it % Is there any one who 
hears and does not understand me 1 Let me implore gen- 
tlemen not to call that feeling into action by this disastrous 
policy." In plain English, the slaveholders love slavery 
more than they do the Union, and would sacrifice the last, 
rather than acknowledge as free, a people who had once 
been slaves. 

Mr. Benton of Missouri: — "Tlie peace of eleven States 
in this Union will not permit the fruits of a successful negro 
insurrection to be exhibited among them ; — it will not per- 
mit the fact to be seen and told, that for the murder of their 
masters and mistresses they are to find friends among the 
white people of the United States." 

Mr. Hamilton of South Carolina : — " It is proper that on 
this occasion I should speak with candor and without re- 
serve : that I should avow what I believe to be the senti- 
ments of the southern people on this question, and this is 
that Haytian independence is not to be to/crated in any form. 
* * * * j^ p e0 p] e will not stop to discuss the nice meta- 
physics of a federative system, when havoc and destruction 
menace them in their doors." 

Mr. Hayne of South Carolina : — "With nothing connect- 
ed with slavery can we consent to treat with other nations ; 
and least of all ought we to touch the question of the inde- 
pendence of Hayti in conjunction with the Revolutionary 
Governments whose own history affords an example scarcely 
less fatal to our repose. These governments have proclaimed 
principles of liberty and equality, and have marched to vic- 
tory under the banner of universal emancipation. You find 
men of color at the head of their armies, in the Legislative 
halls, and in the Executive departments. * * * * Our pol- 
icy with regard to Hayti is plain ; we never can acknowl- 
edge her independence. * * * * Let our Government direct 
all our Ministers in South America and Mexico, to protest 
against the independence of Hayti." 

Gentlemen when they talk in a passion, rarely talk wisely 
or consistently. Mr. Hayne insists that we cannot touch the 
question of the independence of Hayti in conjunction with 
the American Revolutionary Governments ; and yet in the 
next breath, he is for opening negotiations with all these 
governments on this very subject. Almost every slaveholder 
assures us that the slaves, if emancipated, could not take 
care of themselves ; and yet Mr. Hayne proclaims the im- 



RESPECTING HAYTI. 65 

^ortant fact, that the armies of these same governments have 
"marched to victory" with colored men at their head; and 
that colored men are found in their Legislative halls, and 
Executive departments ! 

Mr. Johnson of Louisiana : — " It may be proper to ex- 
press to the South American States the unalterable opinion 
entertained here in I'egard to intercourse with them. The 
unadvised recognition of that Island, (Hayti) and the public 
reception of their Ministers, will nearly sever our diplomatic 
intercourse, and bring about a separation and alienation in- 
jurious to both. I deem it of the highest concern to the po- 
litical connection of these countries, to remonstrate against a 
measure so justly offensive to us, and to make that remon- 
strance effectual." — Congressional Debates, Vol. II. 

Thus the gentleman from Louisiana looked upon the re- 
cognition of Hayti by other and independent States, as a 
measure so offensive to us, as to afford us ground for quar- 
relling with them. 

We will now advance twelve years in our history, and see 
if the lapse of time has softened the hatred of our rulers to 
Hayti. On the 17th December, 1838, a petition was pre- 
sented to the House of Representatives, praying for the 
establishment of the usual international relations with that 
republic. No sooner was the purport of the petition an- 
nounced, than vehement objections were made to it, and no 
less than thirty-two members had the hardihood to vote 
against even its reception. They were, however, in the 
minority ; and on a motion being made to refer it to the 
Committee on Foreign Relations, the Chairman of that 
committee, himself a slaveholder, advocated the reference, 
as the best way of stifling the discussion, observing that 
" several similar memorials had been sent there the last ses- 
sion, which had never been reported on. This would take a 
similar course ; it zootdd never be heard of again" With 
this intimation, the petition was referred. A motion was 
then made to instruct the committee to report on the peti- 
tion; but, to stop the discussion, the previous question was 
moved, and the motion denied by a great majority. A few 
extracts from the speeches delivered on this occasion may be 
useful, as showing the temper and logic displayed by the 
southern members. 

Mr. Legare of South Carolina : " It (the petition) origi- 
nates in a design to revolutionize the South and convulse the 
Union, and ought therefore to be rejected with reprobation. 
As sure as you live, sir, if this course is permitted to go on, 

e 



66 BRITISH ARMY IN HAYTI. 

the sun of this Union will go down — it will go down in 
BLOOD — and go down to rise no more. I will vote un- 
hesitatingly against nefarious designs like these. They are 
treason, — yes sir, I pronounce the authors of such things 
traitors — traitors not to their country only, but to the whole 

HUMAN RACE." 

Mr. Wise of Virginia : "We are called to recognize the 
insurrectionists who rose on their French masters. A large 
portion of those now in power in this black republic, are 
slaves who cut their master's throats. Christophe himself 
was an insurrectionist and a revolutionist. Their Govern- 
ment has the stamp of such an origin. And will any gentle- 
man tell me now, that slaves, aided by an English army, 
(and it is consolatory to think, when we are threatened by 
abolitionists with having our throats cut at the South, that 
the*e slaves in .St. Domingo, though ten to one in number, 
never could have succeeded in insurrection but for the aid 
of the British army,) ought to be recognized by this Govern- 
ment, and that their being such is no argument against it? 
No, it is the abolition spirit alone which would have us say 
to these men, whose hands are yet red with their masters' 
blood : ' You shall be recognized as freemen ; we wish to 
establish international- relations with you.' Never will I — 
never will my constituents be forced into ibis. This is the 
only body of men who have emancipated themselves by 
butchering their masters. They have long been free, I ad- 
mit ; yet, if they bad been free for centuries, — if Time him- 
self should confront me, and shake his hoary locks at my op- 
position, — I should say to him, I owe more to my constitu- 
ency — to the quiet of my people — than I owe or can owe to 
mouldy prescriptions, however ancient." 

The consolation- enjoyed by this gentleman, from the con- 
viction that- the Haytians are indebted to a British army for 
their liberty,. is not a little ludicrous. There has never been 
but one British army in Hayti, and that was sent for the pur- 
pose, not of emancipation, but of conquest : and instead of 
aiding the blacks, it was joined by two thousand of the plant- 
ers, who looked to it as the means by which they were to 
recover their authority over their former slaves. Yet this 
army, thus aided, found itself vanquished by the despised 
blacks ; and in May, 1798, under Brigadier General Main- 
land, capitulated to Tbussaint, the black General. The his- 
tory of St. Domingo affords much and valuable instructioiv 
to slaveholders, but certainly very litcte consolation. 

It may stot be uninteresting to state a few facts relative co 



PRESENT CONDITION OF I1AYTI. 67 

the present condition of a republic which so powerfully ex- 
cites the apprehensions of southern gentlemen, and to the 
magnitude of the commerce which our northern politicians 
are willing to sacrifice for southern votes. 

Tho advocates of slavery are fond of representing the 
Haytians as a horde of barbarians. We therefore give the 
following evidence, published by the British Parliament, and 
taken before one of its committees. 

Evidence of Vice Admiral, the Hon. Charles Fleming, Mem- 
ber of Parliament : — " He could not speak positively of the 
increase of the- Hay ti an population since ]804, but believed 
it had trebled since that time.* They now feed themselves, 
and they e:rq)ort provisions which neither the French nor the 
Spaniards had ever done before. He saw a sugar estate 
near Cape Haytian, General Boulon's, extremely well culti- 
vated and in beautiful order. A new plantation was forming 
on the opposite side of the road. Their victuals were very 
superior to those in Jamaica, consisting chiefly of meat — 
cattlo being very cheap. He saw no marks of destitution 
any where. The country seemed improving, and trade in- 
creasing. The estate he visited near the Cape was large ; 
it was calculated to make 300 hogsheads of sugar. It was 
as beautifully laid out and as well managed .as any estate he 
had seen in the West Indies. His official correspondence 
as Admiral, with the Haytian Government, made him attri- 
bute much efficiency to it, and it bore strong marks of civili- 
zation. There was a better police in Hayti than in the new 
►South American States •> the communication was more rapid; 
the roads much better. One had been cut from Port-au- 
Prince to Cape Haytian that would do honor to any country. 
A regular port was established. The government is one 
quite worthy of a civilized people." 

In 1831, the imports into France from Hayti exceeded in 
value the imports from Sweden,. Denmark, the Hanseatic 
Towns, Holland, Austria, Portugal, the French West Indies, 
or China. — McCulloch's ^Dictionary of Commerce, p. G37. 

In 1833, the imports from Hayti into the United States 
exceeded in value our imports from Prussia, Sweden and 
Norway, Denmark and the Danish West Indies, Ireland and 
Scotland, Holland, Belgium, Dutch West Indies, British 
West Indies, Spain, Portugal, all Italy, Turkey and the Le- 
vant, or any one of the South American republics. And 

* By the census of 1324, the population was stated at 035,000. It is 
unquestionably upwards of a million at the present time. 



68 TEXAS. 

what protection is afforded to this commerce by the Federal 
Government — a Government willing to negotiate in every 
court of Europe for compensation for shipwrecked or fugitive 
negroes 1 " Our trade with Hayti is embarrassed ; it is sub- 
jected to severe discriminating duties. We are probably the 
least favored of any people in the ports of the republic. Ton- 
nage duties and vexatious port charges discourage and op- 
press our commerce there. I am assured that, but fur these 
impediments, the trade from this country with that would be 
greatly extended. The acknowledged cause of all the em- 
barrassments to that trade is found in the fact, that our Gov- 
ernment refuses to recognize the Government of Hayti. — 
We stand aloof, as if they were a lawless tribe of savages. 
While all other powers have long since acknowledged them 
as an independent Sovereignty, we refuse to recognize them. 
Others pi-orit by their commerce at our expense. We have 
no representative at the island of any grade, nor have they a 
public officer accredited here. No commercial relation, 
therefore, exists between the two Governments." — Sjwech 
of Mr. Grennell, in H. of R., IStk December, 183S. 

If the treatment which Hayti has received from the United 
States, evinces the hatred of our republic to emancipation, 
we have a proof no less strong of its attachment to slavery, in 

The conduct of the Federal Government towards 
Texas. 

In 1S29, the Republic of Mexico having achieved her own 
independence, gave liberty to evei'y slave within her limits. 
This State had a vast and fertile, but thinly peopled territo- 
ry, adjacent to Louisiana. In this territory within a few 
years past, a large number of adventurers from the United 
States, had taken up their residence with the consent, and 
under the jurisdiction of Mexico. These adventurers sighed 
for the sweets of slavery, which they had enjoyed in their 
native land ; and as the soil was adapted to the cotton culti- 
vation, they became restless under the requirement of the 
Government, either to till it themselves, or honestly to pay 
-those who tilled it for them. Hence, they conceived the 
idea of transferring their allegiance from Mexico, to another 
republic less tenacious of human rights. Nor was a large 
portion of that other republic less anxious to acquire a new 
market for slaves, and a new territory which would give to 
the slaveholding interest a preponderance in the national 
councils. Judge Upshur in 1829, remarked in the Virginia 
Convention : " If Texas should be obtained, which he strong- 



INVASION OF TEXAS. 69 

ly desired, it would raise the price of slaves, and be a great 
advantage to the slaveholders in that State;" and in 1832, 
Mr. Gholston declared in the Virginia Legislature, that " he 
believed the acquisition of Texas would raise the price of 
slaves fifty per cent, at least." Virginia, it will be recol- 
lected, is a breeding State, and therefore interested in the 
opening of a new market. The planting States have no 
wish to raise the price of slaves, but are deeply concerned 
for the perpetuity of the system. One of their distinguished 
politicians published a series of essays on the policy of annex- 
ing Texas to the United States ; a territory, which he con- 
tended, was large enough to be divided into nine slave States, 
which would counterbalance the increasing number of free 
States at the North. 

The Federal Government ever ready to promote the slave- 
holding interest, commenced a negotiation for the purchase 
of Texas, and offered four millions of dollars for the territo- 
ry.* The offer was promptly rejected, and other means 
were resorted to. 

Texan land companies were formed at the North, for the 
sale of extensive tracts of land, said to have been obtained 
by grants, from the Mexican Government. Capitalists, pol- 
iticians, and demagogues participated in these splendid 
schemes of speculation, and became vociferous in the cause 
of Texan liberty. At the same time, crowds of emigrants 
repaired to the territory, many carrying their slaves with 
them. At last, these men feeling themselves strong enough, 
raised the standard of rebellion in September, 1S35, and on 
the 2d of the succeeding March, issued their declaration of 
independence. The Mexicans of course, endeavored to 
quell the insurrection ; but, although nominally fighting with 
their own subjects, they were in fact contending against an 
invasion from the United States. The truth of this assertion 
will scarcely be questioned : yet it may be well to support 
it by a few facts. The following extracts from the journals 
of the day, will, it is presumed, be sufficient. 

" Who will go to Texas ? — Major J. \V. Harvey of Lin- 
colnton, has been authorized by me, with the consent of 
Major-General Hunt, an agent in the western counties of 
North Carolina, to receive and enrol volunteer emigrants to 
Texas ; and will conduct such as may wish to emigrate to 



* See instructions from Mr. Van Buren, Secretary of State,, to Mr. Poin- 
sett.. Minister tD Mexico,. August 25, 1829. 



70 INVASION OP TEXAS. 

that Republic, about the 1st of October next, at the expense 
of the Republic of Texas. J. P. Henderson, 

Brig. Gen. of the Texan Army." 
North Carolina Paper. 

" Three hundred Men for Texas. — Gen. Dunlap of Ten- 
nessee, is about to proceed to Texas, with the above number 
of men. The whole corps are now at Memphis. Every- 
man is completely armed, the corps having been originally 
raised for the Florida war. This force we have no doubt, 
will be able to carry every thing before it." — Vic.ksburg 
(Miss.) Register. 

" Since early last winter, a series of transactions have 
passed before us in open day, the undisguised object of 
which has been to enlist troops, and procure arms to aid the 
Texans in their war with Mexico. Troops have been enlist- 
ed — arms have been obtained. Their military parades have 
been exhibited in our streets — they have embarked at our 
wharf — have proceeded to Texas — united themselves with 
her troops, and joined with them in war against Mexico. Is 
it not a fact that every stand of public arms deposited at this 
place by the State, have been sent to Texas, with the conni- 
vance of those who had charge of them?" — Cincinnati Gaz. 

Meetings were held in various places, and speeches made, 
and resolutions passed in favor of the Texan jwtriots. 

At a meeting in Cincinnati, of the friends of Texas, it was 
resolved : " That no law either human or divine, except such 
as are formed by tyrants for their sole benefit, forbids our as- 
sisting the Texans ; and such law, if any exists, we do not 
as Americans choose to obey." 

The Federal Government far from taking any efficient 
measures to arrest this invasion of a friendly and neighbor- 
ing State, sent an imposing force under Gen. Gaines, into the 
Mexican territory, under the pretence of protecting the fron- 
tiers ! With what result is shown by the following article. 

From the Pcnsacola Gazette. 

" About the middle of last month, Gen. Gaines sent an 
officer of the United States army into Texas, to reclaim some 
deserters. He found them already enlisted in the Texan 
service to the number of tiro hundred. They still wore the 
uniform of our army, but refused of course to return. The 
commander of the Texan army was applied to, toenforce 
their return, but his only reply was, that the soldiers might 
go, but that he had no authority to send them back. This is 
a new view of our Texan relations?'' 



SLAVERY ESTABLISHED. 71 

The adventurer? in Texas had no sooner set up themselves, 
-than they adopted a constitution, in which they aimed, — 
first, to secure themselves and their children for ever, the 
blessings of slavery ; and secondly, to acquire the aid and 
protection of the United States. The first object was to be 
attained by a constitutional prohibition of both private and 
legislative emancipation ; and by making it a fundamental 
law of the Republic, that no free black or mulatto person 
should reside within its boundaries ; and the second object, 
by giving to the United States in perpetuity, a monopoly of 
the slave market in Texas, — the importation of slaves from 
any other country, being absolutely prohibited, thus promis- 
ing to realize the golden visions of the Virginia breeders. 

A feverish impatience now pervaded the southern Stales 
for the acknowledgement of Texan independence ; — an im- 
patience in which the northern speculators fully participated. 
Acknowledgement it was seen, must precede annexation, 
since the latter could only be effected by a treaty with Texas 
as an independent power. Still policy required that this 
measure should be cautiously managed, lest the North should 
become alarmed at this scheme for vesting the whole politi- 
cal power of the Union in the hands of the slaveholders, and 
the northern members of Congress be found for once refrac- 
tory. 

Congress met in December, 1836, and on -the 22d of the 
same month, President Jackson sent them a special message 
in relation to Texas. He remarked : " Prudence seems to 
dictate that we should still stand aloof, and maintain our pre- 
sent attitude, if not till Mexico, or one of the great foreign 
powers shall recognize the independence of the new Gov- 
ernment, at least until the lapse of time, or the course of events 
shall have proved beyond all cavil or dispute, the ability of that 
country to maintain their separate sovereignty, and to uphold 
the Government constituted by them" 

This message dissipated all apprehensions on the part of 
the friends of freedom, of a speedy acknowledgement, and 
relieved Congress from the remonstrances and petitions with 
which their tables would otherwise have been loaded. 

It was obvious, however, that if we could contrive to be- 
come embroiled in a war -w-ith Mexico, we might then seize 
upon Texas, and hold it by right of conquest, without any 
violation of our neutral obligations : and that by this process, 
the annexation might be effected with even more facility 
than by a compact with Texas as an independent powe\. 



72 RECOGNITION OF TEXAS.. 

Accordingly about two weeks after the late message, the 
President sent another to Congress on our grievances against 
Mexico — grievances about which the people at large knew 
and cared nothing. This message recommended the passage- 
of a law authorizing the President to employ a naval force 
against Mexico if she refused " to come to an amicable ad- 
justment of the matters in controversy between us, upon an- 
other demand thereof, made from on board one of our vessels 
of tear on the coast of Mexico." This proposition was coldly 
received, neither Congress nor the nation seeming to approve 
of such a novel and summary way of declaring war; and no 
one having the slightest desire for war, except those who 
were anxious for the annexation. It being found that a war , 
could not be had, another game was played. The session, 
was to close on the 3d March. The strongest opposition to 
Texas was to be apprehended in the Lower House. Four 
days before the termination of the session, a motion was there 
made to add a clause to the appropriation bill, making pro- 
vision for the salary of a diplomatic agent to Texas. There 
was no time- for long speeches, and the motion was adopted 
with the amendment "to be sent by the President whenever 
he shall receive satisfactory evidence that Texas is an inde- 
pendent power, and shall see fit to open a diplomatic inter- 
course with her." The late message proved that the Presi- 
dent had not yet received " the satisfactory evidence," and 
anticipated it only from the action of the great foreign pow- 
ers, or " the lapse of time." Little hesitation therefore was 
felt in leaving the subject under the control of the Execu- 
tive. The House of Representatives, in which there was a 
majority of northern members, having been thus managed, 
and a salary secured for a Minister to Texas ; the veil was 
thrown aside in the Senate, and two days before the end of 
the session, it was " Resolved, that the State of Texas, hav- 
ing established and maintained an independent government, 
capable of performing those duties, foreign and domestic, 
which appertain to independent governments, and it appear- 
ing that there is no longer any reasonable prospect of the 
successful termination of the war by Mexico against said 
State, it is expedient and proper, and in conformity with the 
laws of nations and. the precedents of this Government in 
like cases, that the independent political existence of said 
State, be acknowledged by the Government of the United 
States." 

As the whole tenor of this resolution was in direct oppo- 
sition to the message of the 22d December, and as nothing; 



CONDUCT TOWARDS HAYTI AND TEXAS. 73 

had occurred since that date to weaken the positions assumed 
in the message, one of the Senators in opposing the absolu- 
tion, very naturally alluded to the views entertained by the 
President. On this, Mr. Walker, a Senator from Mississippi,, 
rose in his place and declared, that " he had it from the Pre- 
sident's own lips, that if he were a Senator, he tcoidd vote for 
tJiis resolution ! /" 

At eleven o'clock of the night of the 3d March, an hour 
before his term of office expired, and just as the Senate was 
about adjourning, the President sent them the nomination: 
of a Minister to Texas. 

The conduct of the Federal Government towards Texas 
and Hayti, places in a strong light the influence of slavery 
on our national councils. The latter State has been inde- 
pendent both in name and in fact for thirty-seven years, yet 
we still refuse to recognize her. Twelve months after Texas 
declared her independence, she was received by us into the 
family of nations, and honored by an interchange of diplo- 
matic agents. For thirty-five years, the soil of Hayti has not 
been trodden by an invader ; only ten months before the ac- 
knowledgement of Texas, a Mexican army was carrying ter- 
ror and destruction through its territory. That army had 
indeed been defeated, but another was preparing to renew 
the contest. Hayti had long been at peace with all the world. 
Mexico claimed Texas as its own, and solemly avowed its 
determination to chastise and suppress the revolt. Hayti 
achieved her independence after a long and arduous strug- 
gle with powerful armies, and has a population of a million 
to maintain it. Texas, when acknowledged, could appeal 
only to the fortunate result of a single battle as evidence of 
her national power, while she had no more than 60,000 in- 
habitants to contend against the eight millions of Mexico. 
With Hayti, we had a large and valuable commerce, while 
our commerce with Texas was only in expectancy. Yet has 
slavery estranged our Government from the one nation, and 
led it to welcome to its embrace another, incomparably infe- 
rior in political strength and moral worth. 

The indecent haste with which Texas was acknowledged^ 
and the trickery by which the acknowledgement was effect- 
ed, were prompted by the desire of annexation. A southern 
journal speaks thus frankly on the subject. " Does any sober 
observer contend — can he in the face of facts, that Texas 
has substantially, according to the usages of nations, accom- 
plished her independence 1 Was there not an even chance, 
to put the matter on the most favorable footing, that the 



!74 EFFORTS TO EFFECT THE 

victory of Jacinto might this campaign be reversed? But 
natural feeling has outstripped the prudence of our Govern- 
ment, usually discreet and judicious, and social sympathy has 
done what political precedent, and possibly expediency, might 
not have sanctioned. The debate in the British Parliament 
shows how well State papers and official ceremonies" (viz. 
the 1 President's message,) "may delude, or seem to delude 
foreign governments. While Lord Palmerston and O'Con- 
nell were defending our Government from any improper 
haste in acknowledging the independence of Texas, the deed 
is consummated!" — The Tort Gibson (Miss.) Southerner. 

The whole slave region, with scarcely an exception, de- 
manded a union with the new State. " The very reasons," 
said the Charleston Mercury, " so intemperately urged by the 
North against it, that it will increase the political weight of 
the southern States, and perpetuate and extend the curse of 
slavery, are our best reasons for it" 

The Legislatures of South Carolina, Mississippi, and Ten- 
nessee, all passed resolutions in favor of the annexation. 
Many individuals at the North had likewise a deep pecuniary 
interest in the question. They had speculated largely in 
Texas lands, but their title would be of but little value, so 
long as they depended on the faith of the lawless adventurers 
who possessed the country. Could that country be received 
into the Union, and subjected to the acts of Congress and 
the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, their purchases might 
ensure to themselves or their families, princely estates. A 
writer in the Salem Gazette, (Mass.) probably a speculator, 
in vindicating the annexation, thus appealed to the avarice 
of New-England. " It is calculated that the value of one 
kind of properly in the South, slaves, will be enhanced so 
much, that that portion of our country will realize one or 
two hundred millions of dollai's ; and the South cannot be 
enriched without benefiting the North -^-the money will nat- 
urally come here at last." 

The people of Texas were no less desirous of annexation 
than southern slaveholders, or northern speculators. The 
plan of union was avowed from almost the very commence- 
ment of the rebellion. In August, 1836, S. F. Austin, in an 
address offering himself as a candidate for the Presidency, 
told the people :■ — "I am in favor of the annexation, and will 
do all in my power to effect it with the least possible delay." 
W. H. Jack, a candidate for the legislature, declared : " I am 
decidedly and unequivocally in favor of annexing Texas to 
the United States." Gen. Houston, the Commander-in- 



ANNEXATION OT TEXAS. 75 

thief, intimated that "the annexation was essential to the 
interests of the new country." The Texan Congress resol- 
ved, " that the President of the Republic of Texas be em- 
powered and authorized to despatch a commissioner or com- 
missioners to the United States of America, to obtain a ne- 
gotiation of our independence, and enter into a treaty with 
that Government for a union on a footing with the original 
States." The first condition prescribed for this proposed 
union, was, " the free and unmolested authority over 

THEIR SLAVE POPULATION!" 

On the 4th August, 1837, the negotiation was opened by 
the Texan Minister at Washington, by a proposition " to 
unite the two people under one and the same government." 
The acceptance of this proposition would of course have 
been equivalent to a declaration of war against Mexico ; a 
responsibility which Mr. Van Buren did not see fit to assume, 
especially in the recess of Congress. He declined entering 
into the negotiation, on the grounds that the United States 
were, at present, at peace with Mexico, and that that power 
had not acknowledged the independence of Texas. As this 
answer merely postponed the annexation on account of an 
obstacle easily removed, it was entirely satisfactory to the 
South, and the more so as the President's message to Con- 
gress on the 4th of the ensuing December, wore a very bel- 
ligerent aspect towards Mexico. 

This formal attempt at annexation roused the fears of the 
North, and innumerable remonstrances against the measure 
were presented to Congress. In the meantime Mexico, by 
proposing a submission of her differences with the United 
States to arbitration, removed all pretence for immediate 
war. Under these circumstances, the southern delegation 
in Congress thought it most prudent not to press the annex- 
ation. The Texans, moreover, finding themselves unmo- 
lested by Mexico, who had become involved in war Avith 
France \ and observing the strong hostility manifested to- 
wards the measure in the United State, formally withdrew 
her application for admission into the Union. It is folly, 
however, to suppose that the project of annexation is aban- 
doned either by the South, or by Texas; nor does it need 
the gift of prophesy to foresee that the first favorable oppor- 
tunity of making war upon Mexico, will be readily embra- 
ced by the Federal Government. Should such a war be 
effected, the dominion of the whip may, perhaps, be extended 
from Maryland to Panama. 

It may not be amiss here to compare the conduct of the 



76 CENSORSHIP OF THE PRESS. 

Federal Government towards the Texan and the Canadian 
rebels. The first were slaveholders re-establishing slavery 
on a soil from which it had been banished ; and they enjoyed 
from the first the sympathy of our government, who took 
care to interpose no real obstacle to an invasion on their be- 
half from the United States ; while for the purpose of aiding 
them it labored to excite an immediate war with Mexico. 
The Canadian rebels were professedly fighting for liberty, 
and should they succeed, there was no probability that negro 
slavery would crown their triumph. They, like the Texans, 
looked to us for aid ; but the President, now alive to the ob- 
ligations of neutrality,, and finding the existing laws insuffi- 
cient to enforce them, applied to Congress and received ad- 
ditional powers. Troops were sent to the frontiers, not to 
swell by desertion the ranks of the rebels, but in good faith, 
forcibly to prevent American citizens from abetting the re- 
volt. A war with Mexico was desired by the slaveholders, 
and the President was for negotiating on hoard, an armed 
vessel. A war with Great Britain, emphatically an anti- 
slavery nation, is now viewed with horror and dismay by the 
whole South,* and the Executive has sedulously endeavored 
to avoid it. 

We have now presented numerous instances of the action 
of the Federal Government in behalf of slavery ; but our 
task is not completed. We are still to view that Govern- 
ment, which, in the language of the Constitution, was estab- 
lished " to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and 
our posterity ;" assailing the constitutional rights of the citi- 
zen, in order to rivet the fetters of the slave ; striving to ex- 
tinguish the freedom of the press, the freedom of debate, and 
the right of petition, to perpetuate property in human flesh. 
These, we are sensible, are strong assertions; we solicit at- 
tention to the facts on which they are founded, and first to 

The attempt of the Federal Government to estab- 
lish A CENSORSHIP OP THE PRESS. 

In the summer of 1S35, the Anti-slavery Society in New- 
York, directed their publisher to forward a number of their 
periodical papers, containing facts and disquisitions on the 
subject of slavery, to various southern gentlemen of distinc- 
tion, in the hope of exciting by this means, a spirit of inquiry 

* A distinguished southern Senator, speaking of the importance of preserv- 
ing our neutrality on the Canada frontier, deeclared that in his opinion " a 
ww with England would be the heaviest calamity that could befall the coun- 
try.." 



mr. Kendall's letter. 77 

•among persons of influence and character. But it was pre- 
cisely such a spirit of inquiry, that the advocates of perpet- 
ual bondage feared might be fatal to their favorite institu- 
tion. Hence tbey affected to believe that the papers sent to 
the masters, were intended to excite the slaves to insurrec- 
tion, and they succeeded in maddening the populace to fury. 
A mob broke into the Charleston Post-Office, and seizing a 
quantity of anti-slavery papers, burned them in the street. 
This outrage was virtually approved by the City Council ; 
and at a public meeting, a committee of " gentlemen" was 
appointed to take charge of the northern mail on its arrival, 
accompany it to the Post-Office, and see that no paper advo- 
cating the rights of man, should be delivered to their owners. 
The Post-Master informed the head of the department, that 
under existing circumstances, he had determined to suppress 
all anti-slavery publications, and asked for instructions for the 
future. It should here be recollected that of all the political 
advisers of the President, Mr. Kendall, at this time acting as 
Post-Master General, was the most odious to the. opposite 
party. He had been appointed during the recess of the 
Senate, and it was regarded as a matter of course, that on 
the meeting of that body, in which the opposition had a ma- 
jority, his nomination would be rejected. The constitution 
forbade a censorship of the press, and had the people been 
disposed to delegate so formidable a power, they certainly 
would not have vested it in the 10.000 deputies of the Post- 
Master General. The law moreover expressly required eve- 
ry Post-Master to deliver the papers received by him, to the 
persons to whom they were directed. 

Such were the circumstances under which Mr. Kendall 
returned his famous answer. After stating that not having 
seen the papers in question, he could nojt judge of their char- 
acter, but had been informed that they were incendiary, in- 
flammatory, and insurrectionary, he added : " By no act or 
direction of mine, official or private, could I be induced to 
aid knowingly in giving circulation to papers of this descrip- 
tion, directly or indirectly. We owe an obligation to the 
laws, but a higher one to the communities in which we live ; 
and if the former be perverted to destroy the latter, it is pa- 
triotism to disregard them. Entertaining these views, I can- 
not sanction and will not condemn the step you have taken." 
This letter taught the Senate that the new officer was willing 
to conduct the Post-Office in a manner calculated to protect 
the " domestic institution" from the assaults of truth and ar- 
gument, and his nomination was confirmed. Mr. Kendall 



78 president's calumny. 

was at the date of his letter, a member of the Cabinet, 
and it was understood that the novel, extraordinary, and dan- 
gerous doctrine of that letter received the sanction of the 
President. 

On the opening of Congress, President Jackson in his 
message, recommended the " passing of such a law as will 
prohibit under severe penalties, the circulation in the south- 
ern States through the mails, of incendiary publications in- 
tended to instigate the slaves to insurrection." The propo- 
sed law it seems, was not to prohibit the printing of certain 
papers, r.or their committal to the mails in the northern 
States, but only their circulation in the slave region. Of 
course certain persons, Post-Masters we presume, were to be 
required under " heavy penalties," to stop these papers ; and 
they were necessarily to be judges of the character of the 
papers, and of the intentions of their writers. From what 
code of despotism did our very democratic President derive 
his plan for destroying the efficiency of the Press 1 By a 
contemptible quibble, this plan was to evade the constitu- 
tional guarantee of the freedom of the press. It was not to 
interfere with the press — not at all — it was merely to pre- 
vent the circulation of its productions ! The press was still 
to be free to pour forth its arguments against slavery, only 
" heavy penalties" were to prevent the people from reading 
them ! The reason moi'eover assigned for this high-handed 
act of tyranny, was a most willful calumny. It was to pre- 
vent the circulation in the southern States of publications in- 
tended to excite the slaves to insurrection. Such a proposal 
from the first magistrate of the country to Congress, and fol- 
lowing the affair at Charleston, and Mr. Kendall's letter, 
irresistibly fixes upon the members of the American Anti- 
slavery Society at New- York, the charge of- sending papers 
into southern States for the purpose and with the desire of 
effecting the massacre of their fellow-citizens. If the Presi- 
dent really believed that such was the object- of the New- 
York abolitionists, and such the character of their publica- 
tions, and if he thought it his official duty to bring the sub- 
ject before Congress, he owed it to himself, to the country, 
to truth and to justice, to have submitted to Congress the 
facts and documents, on which he founded his proposed inva- 
sion of the constitutional rights of his fellow-citizens. But 
he cautiously avoided specifying a single fact, or quoting a 
single sentence in support of his tremendous accusation, or 
in justification of his most unwarrantable proposition ; and 
when written to by the acting committee of the New- York 



INSURRECTIONARY LANGUAGE, 79- 

Society for proof of his charge against them, he deemed it 
most prudent not to return an answer ! Surely the burden 
of proof rests upon him 5 who in a solemn official address to 
the Legislature, holds up a portion of his fellow-citizens as 
miscreants engaged in plotting murder and insurrection ; 
and urges the enaction of a law to counteract their execrable 
machinations. 

It is often difficult to prove a negative ; but in this instance, 
the falsehood of the President's charge is amply demonstra- 
ted by an official document from the slaveholders themselves. 
We give this document, not to exculpate the members of 
the New-York Society from a calumny which their own 
characters abundantly refute, but. to show in a strong light 
the unprincipled means to which the Federal Government 
is capable of resorting to uphold the " peculiar institution" 
of the South. 

A grand jury in Alabama, conceived the bright idea, that 
the publication of tracts at the North against slavery might 
be arrested, by indicting the publishers as felons, and then 
demanding them from the Governors of their respective 
States as fugitives from southern justice. It was necessary, 
however, to specify in the indictment, the precise crime of 
which they had been guilty ; a necessity which the Presi- 
dent regarded as not applicable to his message. We may 
well suppose therefore, that the grand jury would endeavor 
to secure the success of this, their first experiment, by select- 
ing from the various publications alluded to by the Presi- 
dent and Mr. Kendall, as sent to the South for the purpose 
of exciting insurrection, the most insurrectionary, cut-throat 
passages, they could- find. Behold the result. 

" State of Alabama, ^ Circuit Court, September 
Tuscaloosa county. J Term, 1S35. 

" The grand jurors, * * * * upon their oath' present, 
that Robert G. Williams, late of said county, being a wicked, 
malicious, seditious, and ill-disposed person, and being great- 
ly disaffected to the laws and government of said State, and 
feloniously, wickedly, maliciously, and seditiously contriving, 
devising, and intending to produce conspiracy, insurrection,, 
and rebellion among the slave population of said State, and 
to alienate and withdraw the affection, fidelity, and allegiance, 
of said slaves from, their masters and owners, on the tenth 
day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
eight hundred and thirty-five, at the county aforesaid, feloni- 
ously, wickedly, maliciously, and seditiously did cause to be 



80 ACTION OP THE SENATE, 

distributee!, circulated, and published , a seditious paper, 
called ' The Emancipator,' in which paper is published 
according to the tenor and effect following, that is to say : 
' God commands, and all nature cries out, that man should not 
be held as property. The system of making men property, has 
plunged 2,250,000 of our felloio -country men into the deepest 
physical and moral degradation, and they are every moment 
sinking deeper' In open violation of the Act of the General 
Assembly in such case made and provided, to the evil and 
pernicious example of all others in like case offending, and 
against the peace and dignity of the State of Alabama."* 

In the Senate, the recommendation of the President was 
referred to a committee, who reported a bill prohibiting 
Post-Masters from delivering " any pamphlet, newspaper, 
handbill, or other printed paper, or pictorial representation, 
touching the subject of slavery in any State, in which their 
circulation is prohibited by law." The object of this bill 
was by means of federal legislation, to build around the 
slave States a rampart againgg the assaults of light and truth. 
Its absurdity was equalled only by its wickedness. Not a 
newspaper containing a debate in Congress, a report from a 
committee, a message from the President, a letter from the 
West Indies, " touching the subject of slavery," could be 
legally delivered from a southern Post-Office ; and thousands 
of Post-Masters were to be employed in opening envelopes, 
and poring over their contents, to catch a reference to the 
" domestic institution." 

By this bill, the Federal Government virtually surrender- 
ed to the States, the freedom of the press, and nullified the 
guarantee of this inestimable privilege, given by our fathers 
in the Constitution to every citizen. This bill, moreover, 
prepared the way for the destruction of civil and religious 
liberty. If every paper touching the subject of slavery 
might be suppressed, then the same fate might just as con- 
stitutionally be awarded to every paper touching the conduct 
of the administration, or the doctrine of die Trinity. It es- 
tablished a censorship of the press on one subject, which 
might afterwards be extended to others. Yet this bill, ab- 
surd and unconstitutional as it was, went through its regular 
stages with little opposition, till the important question was 

taken on its engrossment; — the vote stood 18 to IS. The 

, _ . 

* Another count was added for distributing " The Emancipator," but with 
outgiving any extracts. It. is scarcely necessary to add, that Williams had 
never been in Alabama. Yet on this indictment, he was demanded of the 

New-York Executive as a fugitive felon, by the Governor of Alabama. 



RIGHT OF PETITION. 81 

casting vote was now required from Mr. Van Buren, who, 
as Vice President, occupied the chair. He gave it for the 
slaveholders, and received from them at the ensuing election, 
sixty-one electoral votes, by means of which, he became 
President of the United States.* On the final question, the 
bill was rejected, and this attempt to trammel the press for 
the protection of slavery, defeated. A very different result 
however, has attended 

The effort of the Federal Government to nullify 
the right of petition and the freedom of debate. 

For thirty years past, petitions have been presented to 
Congress for the abolition of slavery in the District of Co- 
lumbia, and the national territories ; and until latterly, were 
received and treated like other petitions. But having with- 
in a few years prodigiously increased in number, and some 
northern members having shown a disposition to advocate 
their prayer, a most extraordinary course has been pursued 
in relation to them. The reason of this course is explained 
by the following passage from a speech by Mr. Strange, a 
Senator from North Carolina. " Every agitation of this sub- 
ject (slavery,) weakens the moral force in our favor ; and 
breaks down the moral barriers which now serve to protect 
and secure us. We hare every tiling to lose, and nothing to 
gain by agitation and discussion." 

The frankness of this confession is as remarkable as its 
truth is unquestionable ; and it shows us why the advocates 
of slavery instead of meeting their opponents in argument, 
have sought to silence them by brute force, and penal enact- 
ments. 

One of the most unequivocal and undoubted of all consti- 
tutional rights is that of petition, and it is moreover, express- 
ly guaranteed by the constitution. But this right has been 
most audaciously nullified by both branches of the National 
Legislature. The Senate have not, it is true, avowedly re- 
fused to receive anti-slavery petitions, but they have adopted 
a course which answers the same purpose. The practice for 
some years past has been to lay the question of reception on 
the table without deciding it, and the petition not being in 
fact received, cannot be discussed, nor any measure respect- 
ing it taken. This course is no less at variance with the 

* The two Senators from Now- York, Messrs. Wright and Tallmndgo, po- 
litical friends of Mr, Van Buren, supported the bill. It is due to justice to 
mention, that the bill was finally lost by the votes of several southern Sena- 
tors. 



82 FREEDOM OF DEBATE. 

constitutional rights of the petitioners, than it is with those 
of the members of the Senate. The rights of petition and 
freedom of debate are both nullities, if the body to which a 
prayer is addressed, is prohibited from listening to it, and 
the individual members are prohibited from noticing it. — 
Would it be no violation of the Constitution were the Senate 
to order that every petition, " touching the subject of slave- 
ry," should be delivered to their doorkeeper, to be commit- 
ted by him to the flames I And yet in what particular, are 
the rights of the petitioners more respected by the practice 
we have mentioned .' The petitions are not indeed burned, 
but they are left in the pockets of those to whom they were 
entrusted; and not being received, the Senate is supposed 
to be ignorant of their contents, and of course no member is 
permitted to discuss their merits, or to propose any measure 
founded upon them. Let us now turn to what is regarded 
as the popular branch, — the House of Representatives, — 
intended to be the special guardian of the liberties of the 
people, as the Senate is of the rights of the State.-. 

In May, 1S3G, a committee reported to the House, a reso- 
lution prefaced with this extraordinary avowal : " Whereas 
it is extremely important and desirable, that the .agitation 
on this subject (slavery) should be finally arrested for the 
purpose of restoring tranquility to the public mind, your 
committee respectfully recommend the following resolution." 
Here then is an acknowledged, unblushing interference 
by the Federal Government, in behalf of slavery ; an avowed 
interference to arrest that agitation, which we are assured 
by Mr. Strange, " breaks down the moral barriers," which 
serve to protect and secure a system of iniquitous cruelty 
and oppression. To arrest this agitation, the committee did 
not scruple to recommend a measure, breaking down the 
constitutional barriers erected to protect and secure the 
rights and liberties of the people of the United States. The 
resolution reported by the committee, was adopted by the 
House, oivthe 26th of May, 1S3G, and is in these words : 

"Resolved, That all petitions, memorials, resolutions, and 
propositions relating in any way, or to any extent whatever, 
to the subject of slavery, shall without being either printed 
or referred, belaid on the table, and that no farther action 
whatever shall be had- thereon." Ayes 117 — Nays 08. 

It is worthy of remark, that of the ayes, no less than 62" 
were from the free States 1 The- advocates of this resolu- 
tion, conscious that it could bear discussion as little as slave- 
ry itself, caused it to be adopted through the operation of 
the previous question, by a silent vote. 



RIGHT OF PETITION. 83 

We have exhibited the character of slavery and the slave 
trade at the seat of the Federal Government, and have shown 
that Congress is the local legislature of the District of Co- 
lumbia, having "exclusive jurisdiction over it in all ci 
whatever." Now one of the peculiar atrocities of this reso- 
lution is, that it wrests from every member of the House, 
his constitutional right to propose such measures for the gov- 
ernment of the District as justice and humanity may require. 
Slaves might be burned alive in the streets of the Capital ; 
the slavers might be crowded to suffocation with human vic- 
tims ; every conceivable cruelty might be practised, and no 
one member of the local legislature could be permitted to 
propose even a committee of inquiry, "relating in any way, 
or to any extent whatever, to the subject of slavery !" 

The fact that C2 northern members on this occasion, ar- 
rayed themselves on the side of the slaveholders, affords a 
melancholy and alarming proof of the corrupting influence 
which slavery is exerting on the morality and patriotism of 
the free States. 

This foolish and wicked expedient to " restore tranquili- 
ty" to the people, by trampling on their lights and gagging 
their representatives, failed of success. The petitioners at 
this session were 34,000, — at the next the number was 
swelled to one hundred and ten thousand ! and the gag 
was renewed. During the session of 1837—8, the number 
rose to three hundred thousand. Early in the last men- 
tioned session, a member from Vermont, presented a petition 
for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and 
took the liberty to offer some remarks on the subject of 
slavery. This attempt to break down " the moral barriers," 
threw the southern members into great trepidation, and the 
scene which ensued, illustrates the system of intimidation, to 
which we have already adverted. The Speaker was inter- 
rupted by a gentleman from Virginia, calling aloud, and ask- 
ing his colleagues to retire with him from the hall ; — ano- 
ther from Georgia exclaimed, that, he hoped the whole south- 
ern delegation would do the same; — a third from South Car- 
olina declared, that all the representatives from that State 
' had already signed an agreement.' The House adjoin - 
and a southern member invited the gentlemen from the slave- 
holding States tomeet immediately in an adjoining room. The 
meeting was held, but its proceedings were not made pub- 
lic. The, result, however, was manifest in the introduction 
next morning, of another gag resolution, directing all memo- 
rials,, petitions, and papers touching the abolition of slavery 



84 ■ ACTION OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. 

in the national territories, and of the American slave trade, 
to be laid on the table, without being printed, read, debated, 
or referred, and that no farther action should be had thereon. 
Through the acquiescence of northern members, it was 
passed by a silent rote. 

At the beginning of the next session, a meeting of the ad- 
ministration members was held, at which it was determined 
to renew the gag ; and as a proof of the devotion of the dnn- 
ocratic party at the North to the cause of slavery, it was ar- 
ranged that now, for the first time, the odious measure should 
be proposed by a northern man : nay, not merely a northern 
man, but a native of New-England — a representative from 
New-Hampshire. The resolution was accordingly introdu- 
ced, and was passed on the 12th December, 1838, and has 
given notoriety to the name of Atkerton. 

Thus we see a persevering, systematic effort on the part 
of Congress to protect slavery by suppressing debate, and 
throwing contempt upon the petitions of hundreds of thous- 
ands of American citizens. That this should be done by 
slaveholders was perhaps to have been expected ; but that 
they should be aided in such a desperate assault upon con- 
stitutional liberty by northern men, for the paltry considera- 
tion of southern votes and southern trade, is mortifying and 
alarming. The meeting of extremes is a trite illustration of 
human inconsistency. If, in Dr. Johnson's time, the loudest 
yelps for liberty were heard from the drivers of gjaves ; the 
loudest yelps in the northern States against aristocracy, char- 
tered monopolies and oppression of the poor, are now heard 
from men who have labored to perpetuate the bondage of 
millions, by gag laws, and restrictions on the freedom of 
speech and the press. These men are acting from party 
views, and are rushing to battle under the war cry of " Van 
Buren and slavery," in hopes, through southern auxiliaries 
of enjoying the spoils of victory. Others again, without the' 
slightest sympathy in the political principles of these men, 
and with their ears stuffed, and their hearts padded with 
cotton, are co-operating with them in behalf of slavery, from 
their love of southern trade.* 



* The following are strong and amusing instances of the meeting' of ex- 
tremes. In the Spring of 1837, the irkig merchants of New-York, sent a 
deputation to Washington to request the President to adopt certain measures 
to relieve the commercial embarrassments of the country. The request "as 
declined, and a great meeting was convened to receive the report of the de- 
putation. The report, which was adopted by the meeting, recommended ef- 
forts to displace Mr. Van Buren, and as one means of effecting this object. 



ACTION OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. S5 

We will here close our protracted investigation with a 
brief 
Recapitulation of the action of the Federal Gov- 
ernment in behalf of slavery. 

This action we have found exhibited (omitting constitu- 
tional provisions) in 

1. Its effort to degrade the free people of color by exclu- 
ding them from the militia; prohibiting them from driving a 
mail waggon — denying naturalization to foreigners of their 
complexion — subjecting them to odious disqualifications and 
restrictions in the City of Washington ; and above all in per- 
mitting them without trial, at the discretion of the marshal, 
to be sold as slaves to pay their jail fees. 

2. In its tolerance of slavery in territories under its exclu- 
sive jurisdiction. 

3. In its arbitrary, unconstitutional, and wicked laws for 
the arrest of fugitive slaves. 

4. In its negotiation with Great Britain and Mexico for 
the surrender of fugitive slaves. 

exhorted the merchants to " appeal to our brethren of the South for their 
generous co-operation ; and promise them that those who believe the pos- 
session of property of any kind" (not excepting men, women, and children,) 
" is an evidence of merit, will be the last to interfere with the rights of pro- 
perty of any kind; discourage any effort to awaken an excitement, the bare 
idea of which should make every husband and father sh udder with horror." 
In plain English, if the slaveholders would make common cause with the 
NewrYork merchants against Mr. Van Buren, they in return would make 
common cause with the slaveholders against the abolitionists. But demo- 
crats know tbe value of southern votes quite as well as the whigs. Accord- 
ingly we rind in the Washington Globe of Feb. 9, 1839-, a speech intended 
to huve been delivered, but prevented by the gag resolution, by Mr. Eli 
Moore, a double-refined democrat, President of the New-York Trades" Un- 
ion, and representative frpm that city in Congress. This gentleman tells 
us " the wild, enthusiastic, and impetuous spirit which kindled the fires of 
Sniithfield, and strewed the plains of Palestine with the corses of the crusa- 
ders, stands with lighted and uplifted torch hard by the side of abolitionism, 
ready to spread conflagration and death around the land" — he declares that 
"so long as the DEMOCRATIC or State Rights' party shall maintain the as- 
cendancy, the efforts of theabolitionists will be comparatively innoxious :" 
and he announces what, will be no less news to the New- York merchants, 
than it is to abolitionists, that " the Federal or National Bank Party, 
believe the Federal Legislature not only have the power to abolish slavery in 
the District of Columbia, but also in the States." 

From the opinions and motives we have ascribed to masses, we know there 
are many exceptions. No community can offer brighter examples of virtue 
and philanthropy than the merchants of New-York ; and he who thinks that 
there are not among oar ultra-democrats, men who conscientiously believe 
the principles they profess, and act in consistency with them, does not know 
them. 



86 RESPONSIBILITY OF THE FREE STATES. 

5. In its invasion of Florida, in pursuit of fugitive slaves. 

G. In its negotiations with Great Britain, for compensation 
for slaves who had taken refuge on board British ships of 
war. 

7. In its negotiation with Great Britain, for compensation 
for slaves, ship-wrecked in the West Indies. 

8. In its tolerance, protection, and regulation of the Amei- 
ican slave trade. 

9. In its duplicity, withregard^to the abolition of the Afri- 
can slave trade. 

10. In its efforts to prevent the abolition of slavery in Cuba. 

11. In its conduct towards Hayti. 

12. In its conduct towards Texas. 

13. In its attempt to establish a censorship of the press. 

14. In its invasion of the right of petition, and the freedom 
of debate. 

Such has been the action in behalf of human bondage, of 
a Government which, in the language of the Constitution, 
was formed to establish justice, and secure the blessings of 

LIBERTY. 

And by whom are the men composing the Government 
which thus perverts the objects of its institution, invested 
with their power ] They are the agents, the mere instru- 
ments of the people of the United States — of the North and 
the East, as well as of the West and the South. This, con- 
si deration calls us to consider 

The Responsibility of the Free States. 

The advocates of slavery and the tools of party, are con-" 
tinually telling us, that " the North has nothing to do with 
slavery." A volume might be filled with facts, proving the 
fallacy of this assertion. Thei'e is scarcely a family among 
us, that is not connected by the ties of friendship, kindred, 
or pecuniary interest, with the, land of slaves. That land is 
endeared to us by a thousand recollections — with that land 
we have continual commercial, political, religious, and social 
intercourse. There in innumerable instances, are our per- 
sonal friends, our brothers, our sons and our daughters. — 
How malignant and foolish then is the falsehood, that the 
thousands and tens of thousands of abolitionists among us, 
are anxious to see that land reeking in blood ! But the more 
intimate are our connections with that land, the more expo- 
sed are we to be contaminated by its pollutions; and the 
more imperatively are we bound to seek its real welfare. 

Let it then sink deep in our hearts, let it rest upon our 



DIVISION OF THE UNION. 87 

consciences, that in every wicked and cruel act of the Fed- 
eral Government in behalf of slavery, the people of the North 
have participated, — we might almost say that for all this 
wickedness and cruelty, they are soldi/ responsible ; since it 
could not have been perpetrated but with the consent of their 
representatives. Vast and fertile territories, which mi^ht 
now have been inhabited by a free and happy population, 
have by northern votes been converted, to use the language 
of the poet, into 

" A land of tyrants, and a den of slaves." 

By northern Senators, have our African slavers been pro- 
tected from the search of British cruisers. By northern rep- 
resentatives, is the American slave trade protected, and the 
abominations enacted in the Capital of the Republic, sanc- 
tioned and perpetuated : and northern men are the officia- 
ting ministers in the sacrifice of constitutional liberty on the 
altar of* Moloch. But representatives are only the agents of 
their constituents, speaking their thoughts, and doing their 
will. The people op the North have done " this great 
wickedness.'' When they repent, when they love mercy, and 
seek after justice, their representatives will no longer rejoice 
to aid in transforming the image of God into a beast of bur- 
den — then will the human shambles be overthrown in the 
■Capital — then will slavers "freighted with despair," no 
longer depart from the port of Alexandria, nor chained cof- 
fles parade the streets of Washington. Then will the powers 
of the Federal Government be exercised in protecting, not 
in annihilating the rights of man ; and then will the slave- 
holder, deprived of the countenance of the free States, as he 
is already of nearly all the rest of the civilized world, be led 
to reflect calmly on the character and tendency of the insti- 
tution he now so dearly prizes, and seek his own welfare and 
that of his children in its voluntary and peaceful abolition. 

But here we are confronted with direful prophecies. Let 
us then proceed to inquire into 

The probable influence of the Anti-slavery agitation 
on the permanency of the union. 

Before we can predict what this influence will be, we must 
first inquire, what will probably be the direction and aim of 
the agitation 1 Every State possesses all the powers of in- 
dependent sovereignty, except such as she has delegated to 
the Federal Government. All the powers not specified in 
the Constitution as delegated, are by that instrument reserv- 



88 POWERS AND DUTY OF CONGRESS. 

ed. Among the powers specified, that of abrogating the 
slave codes of several States, is not included ; on the con- 
trary, the guarantee of the continuance of the African slave 
trade for twenty years, the provision for the arrest of fugitive 
slaves, and the establishment of the federal ratio of repre- 
sentation, all refer to and acknowledge the existence of slave- 
ry under State authority. If therefore the abolitionists, un- 
mindful of their solemn and repeated disclaimers of all power 
in Congress to legislate for the abolition of slavery in the 
States, should with unexampled perfidy attempt to bring 
about such legislation ; and if Congress, regardless of their 
oaths, should ever be guilty of the consummate folly and 
wickedness of passing a law emancipating the slaves held 
under State authority, the Union would most unquestionably 
be rent in twain. The South would indeed be craven could 
it submit to such profligate usurpation ; it woidd be compel- 
led to withdraw, not for the preservation of slavery alone, 
but for the protection of all its rights ; and indeed the liber- 
ties of every State would be jeoparded under a government, 
which, spurning all constitutional restraints, should assume 
the omnipotence of the British Parliament. But it is scarce- 
ly worth while to anticipate the consequence of an act which 
can never be perpetrated so long as the people of the North 
retain an ordinary share of honesty and intelligence. 

We have, under all the circumstances of the case, suffi- 
cient reasons for believing that the anti-slavery of the North, 
will carry its action to the very limits of the Constitution, 
but not beyond them. In despite of all the coalitions of par- 
ties, and the intrigues of politicians, liberty of speech and of 
the press will be maintained, and the discussion of slavery 
will be extended by the very efforts made to arrest it. Let 
us suppose this discussion to be attended with its natural 
and pi'obable result, the conversion of the «reat mass of the 
northern people to the principles and avowed objects of the 
abolitionists. Of course, those principles and objects will 
be embraced by their representatives in Congress. In this 
case, Ave may expect that slavery will be abolished in the 
District of Columbia, and that it will be prohibited in the 
territories hereafter to be formed on the west of the Missis- 
sippi. Thus far the constitutional power of Congress cannot 
be rationally questioned. Independent of the exclusive ju- 
risdiction over the territories granted to Congress, we have 
the precedent of the ordinance of 1787, prohibiting slavery 
in the North-west Territory, and the more recent precedent 
of. the prohibition of it in. the Louisiana territory north of 



MOTIVES FOR A SEPARATION. 89 

38 J degrees of north latitude. The American slave trade is 
now, and has been for upwards of thirty years, prohibited in 
vessels under forty tons burden. It would not be easy to 
show that the Constitution forbids its prohibition in vessels 
over forty tons burden. We may therefore take it for grant- 
ed, that the Senate's coasting trade will be legally abolished. 
Should the land traffic not be also destroyed, it would not 
be for want of disposition, or constitutional power in Con- 
gress, but on account of the extreme difficulty which would 
exist in preventing evasions of the law. 

We have now the sum total of national legislation, which 
on our present supposition, will result from the anti-slavery 
action at the North. Yet we are positively assured that such 
legislation would cause a dissolution of the Union. Now ad- 
mitting the constitutional right, and the moral obligation of 
our national legislators, to pass the laws in questions it would 
be difficult to decide by what code of morals they could be 
excused from the discharge of their duty by the apprehension 
of consequences. If God governs the world, more is to be 
feared from rebellion, than from obedience to his will. If 
his wisdom and goodness are both infinite, his will is and 
must be an infallible standard of expediency. If it be folly 
to barter a single soul for the whole world, would it be wise 
to expose a nation to the wrath of Heaven, for a boon which 
we now hold, and would continue to hold at the pleasure of 
men who are daily threatening to deprive us of it 1 

But we have no fears that Congress will ever find the faith- 
ful discharge of their duty, conflicting with the welfare and 
preservation of the Union. How far selfish and influential 
individuals may succeed in raising up at the South a party 
for secession, it is impossible to predict ; but it is not difficult 
to show that a separation founded on the legislation we have 
specified, would be most preposterous and disastrous, and 
therefore we may reasonably presume it will not occur. 

Should the South secede, they would do so we may sup- 
pose, for one or more of the following reasons, viz. 

1 . To protect their rights from invasion. 

2. To guard and perpetuate the institution of slavery, 

3. To increase their wealth and power. 

The North is the strongest portion of the confederacy ; 
and whenever, unmindful of the federal compact, it wickedly 
and forcibly usurps power to the prejudice of the South, se- 
cession is the only resource left to the latter for the protec- 
tion of its rights. But a disregard to the Irishes does not 
necessarily imply a violation of the rights of the South. Not 



90 ADMISSIONS OF SLAVEHOLDERS. 

one of the measures we have contemplated as the probable 
result of the aDti-slavery agitation, encroaches on the consti- 
tutional rights of the South ; and therefore secession, how- 
ever it might be professedly justified, would in fact be prompt- 
ed by other motives than that of self-defence. But so long 
as the Federal Government confines its action against slavery 
within the limits of the Constitution, in what way would se- 
cession tend to guard and perpetuate the institution 1 

It is natural that the slaveholders should wish to destroy 
the influence of the abolitionists, and hence they have very 
unjustifiably expressed fears respecting them which they do 
not feel, and circulated calumnies which they do not believe. 
The following admissions reveal the true nature of the appre- 
hensions entertained by the slaveholders. 

Mr. Calhoun, alluding in the Senate to opinions express- 
ed by some of his southern colleagues, exclaimed : " Do 
they expect the abolitionists will resort to arms, and com- 
mence a crusade to liberate our slaves by force 'I Is this what 
they mean when they speak of the attempt to abolish slave- 
ry 1 If so, let me tell our friends of the South who differ 
from us that the war which the abolitionists wage? against us, 
is of a very different character, and far more effective — it is 
waged not against our lives, but our character." 

Mr. Duff Green, the editor of the United States Tele- 
graph, and the great champion of slavery, thus expressed 
himself in his paper. " We are of those who believe the 
South has nothing to fear from a servile war. We do not 
believe that the abolitionists intend, nor could they if they 
would, excite the slaves to insurrection. The danger of this 
is remote. We believe that we have most to fear from the 
organized action upon the consciences and fears of the slave- 
holders themselves ; from the insinuation of their dangerous 
heresies into our schools, our pulpits, and our domestic cir- 
cles. It is only by alarming the consciences of the wea"k and 
feeble, and diffusing among our people a morbid sensibility 
on the question of slavery, that the abolitionists can accom- 
plish their object."* 

We would now respectfully submit to Mr. Calhoun's con- 
sideration, whether a secession would tend in any way to 
defend the characters of slaveholders from the war he con- 
tends is waged against them ; or fortify their consciences 
againsttbe " dangerous heresies" by which they are assailed 1 

* The New- York wins; merchants may learn from this candid! avowal, that 
the " bare idea'' of the abolition excitement does not make every "husband 
and father shudder with horror" at the South, whatever it may do in Wall- 
street. 



CONSEQUENCES OP A SEPARATION. 91 

The new slave nation would acquire from her separate 
independence, no new power to darken the understandings, 
or benumb the consciences of her citizens. The freedom of 
the press throughout the whole slave region, is already ex- 
tinguished. Not one single newspaper, from Maryland to 
Florida, dares to raise its voice in favor of immediate eman- 
cipation ; and a southern publication, for expressing views 
unfavorable to slavery, notwithstanding its bitter denuncia- 
tions of abolitionists, was lately taken from a Post-Office in 
Virginia, and in pursuance of the lairs of the State, commit- 
ted to the flames by order of the public authorities ; and 
when the laws are silent, lynch clubs are ready to visit with 
infamous and cruel penalties, the man who presumes to ad- 
vocate the inalienable rights of man. What new ramparts 
could the southern confederacy build around their beloved 
institution ] What new weapons could they forge against 
freedom of discussion I 

At the North, the discussion of slavery is now greatly re- 
stricted by political and mercenary considerations ; but such 
considerations would be dissipated in a moment by seces- 
sion: The very demagogues who are fawning upon the 
slaveholders for then- votes, would, when they had no longer 
votes to bestow, seek popularity in ultra hatred to shivery. 

The anti-slavery agitation at the North, is at present chiefly 
confined to the religions portion of the community ; it would 
then extend to all classes, and be embittered by national ari- 
mosity. Slavery would appear more odious and detestable 
than ever, after having destroyed the fair fabric of American 
Union, and severed the bonds of kindred and of friendship, 
to rivet more firmly the fetters of the bondman. 

The slaveholders are now our fellow-countrymen and cit- 
izens ; they would then be foreigners who had discarded our 
friendship and connection, that they might trample with more 
unrestrained violence upon the rights and liberties of their 
fellow-men. These considerations show that any expecta- 
tion of extinguishing or weakening the anti-slavery feeling 
at the North by separation, must be utterly futile. 

A separation would moreover deprive the institution of 
the protection of the Federal Government. Should the 
slaves attempt to revolt, the masters would be left to strug- 
gle with them, unaided by the fleets and armies of the whole 
Republic. 

And by what power would the master recapture his fugi- 
tive who had crossed the boundary of the new empire ? Now 
he may hunt him through the whole confederacy, nor is the 



92 CONSEQUENCES OF A SEPARATION. 

trembling wretch secure of his liberty, till he beholds the 
British standard waving above him. Then freedom would 
be the boon of every slave who could swim the Ohio, or reach 
the frontier line of the free republic. And this frontier line 
be it remembered, would he continually advancing South. — 
The anti-slavery feelings of the North, aggravated as they 
would be by the secession, would afford every possible facil- 
ity to the fugitive, and laws would then be passed, not for 
the restoration of human property, but for the protection of 
human rights. 

Would the dissolution of the Union afford the southern 
planters a more unrestricted enjoyment of the foreign or do- 
mestic slave trade 1 Alas! from the moment of separation, 
slave trading becomes piracy in fact, as well as in name, and 
the crews of New-Orleans and Alexandria, as well as of Af- 
rican slavers, would swing on northern gibbets. 

We confess then our utter inability to perceive in what 
possible mode, a secession of the southern States would tend 
to guard and perpetuate the institution of slavery. 

Would a dissolution of the Union augment the power and 
wealth of the slave States '\ The power and wealth of a na- 
tion depend on its population, industry, end commerce. The 
increase of the white population at the South is now small, 
compared with the wonderful tide of life which is rolling 
over the western plains. And when the southern region shall 
bo insulated from the sympathies of the whole civilized world, 
and Gonsecrated to a stern and remorseless despotism, — a 
despotism sooner or later to be engulphed in blood, by what 
attraction will, it divert the tide of emigration from the fair 
prairies of the west, to its own sugar and cotton fields 1 If 
even now, armed patroles must traverse at night the streets 
and highways that the whites may sleep in safety, and mili- 
tary preparation is essential to domestic security,* what hus- 
band or father will take up his residence in the new empire 
when withdrawn from the protection of the Federal Govern- 
ment, and the friendship of its neighbors'? The 'slaves are 
now rapidly gaining upon their masters, and win increase in 
a still greater ratio after the separation, since the prudent 
and the enterprising will abandon the doomed region, and 
few or none will enter it from without. Hence it is obvious 
that the white population could gain no accession from the 
erection of the Southern States into a separate confederacy. 

* " A state of military preparation must always be with us a state of pcr- 
feet domestic security. A profound peace, and consequent apathy, may ex- 
pose us tn ihe danger of domestic insurrection." — Message of Gov- Hayne 
to the Legislature of South Carolina, 1833. 



CONSEQUENCES OF A SEPARATION. 93 

Would secession augment the wealth of the South 1 Be 
it remembered that there is now no one restriction on south- 
ern industry and enterprise which separation would remove. 
The slaveholders in Congress with rare exceptions, have 
conducted the affairs of the nation to suit themselves. So 
far as the interests of the northern manufacturer were iden- 
tified with the tariff, they have been sacrificed at the mandate 
of the cotton grower; and so far as national legislation can 
promote the wealth of the South, the statutes are already 
enacted. 

It will not be denied that the larger portion of the strength 
of the Union — population, money, commerce, and shipping 
is to be found at the North. In all these elements of national 
power, the South participates equally with the North. The 
foreign invader is kept from her shores, and her property 
abroad is protected from spoliation at least as much by the 
power of the North, as by her own. Her strength for all ' 
purposes of defence, is the strength of the Union. What 
would it be after secession ] True it is, the South would 
receive Texas into her arms, but she would derive neither 
honor nor power from the loathsome embrace. Annexation 
now would ensure to her the political dominion of the whole 
Republic, but after secession, would cause rather weakness 
than strength. 

As we can discover no possible advantage which the South 
could derive from secession, we are convinced that the threats 
of dissolving the Union, which her statesmen are so prodigal 
in scattering, are the ebullitions of passion, or the devices of 
policy, rather than the result of mature determination. This 
conviction is strengthened by still further considerations. 

Should the slave States withdraw without any aggression 
on their rights, but for the sole purpose of enjoying in greater 
privacy and tranquility the sweets of slavery, they would 
leave the whole North in a state of high exasperation. The 
ligaments which have so long bound us together, cannot be 
ruthlessly and wantonly torn asunder, without causing deep 
and festering wounds, the consequences of which, the ima- 
gination revolts from anticipating. And in what light would 
the dark and gloomy despotism be viewed by the civilized 
world 1 Mankind would behold, and wonder, and despise. 
The new State would be excluded from the companionship 
of, nations. Her cotton would indeed be still purchased, as 
we buy the coffee of Hayti ; but with the least possible inti- 
macy. Already is our Minister at London treated with con- 
tumely, because he is a slaveholder — as the representative 



91 CONSEQUEN3E3 OF A SEPARATION. 

only of the men who had shattered the American republic to 
secure the permanency of human bondage, he would not be 
endured at any court in Europe with the exception of Con- 
stantinople. In a few years, the slaves would attain a fright- 
ful numerical superiority over their masters. The dread of 
insurrection within, and of aggression from without, would 
realize the prediction of holy writ, when men's hearts shall 
fail them for fear, and for looking after those things which 
are coming on the earth. At length the fatal period would 
arrive, when, stung with insults and injuries, the new empire 
would appeal to arms ; and should a hostile army land upon 
its shores, the standard of emancipation would be reared, 
and slavery would expire in blood. 

We well know with what indignant feelings these pages 
will at first be read by many ; and fortunate shall we deem 
ourselves should we escape the imputation of writing to pro- 
mote insurrection and disunion. But we appeal from the 
decision of ang] y passion, to that of calm reflection. Do we 
not speak the words of truth and soberness 1 Do not the 
signs of the times warrant our predictions i In what respect 
do the sentiments we have uttered conflict with the lessons 
of history, or the character of human nature i Do we love 
the union of the States '£ (!) If such a love can descend by 
inheritance, we should possess it ; if it can be founded on 
the most thorough conviction of the importance of union not 
merely to the prosperity of our country, but to the happi- 
ness of numerous and beloved children and relatives, we 
should possess it. If the history of the States of Greece, of 
Italy, of Holland, of Germany, of South America, and of 
our own land, demonstrates the blessings of union, and the 
calamities of separation ; ■ then should the prayer of every 
American ascend to Heaven for the perpetuity of the Amer- 
ican-Union. But let it be a union for the preservation, not' 
the destruction of liberty : a union cemented by a sacred 
observance of the constitutional compact; not enforced by 
gag laws, a censorship of the press, and the abrogation of 
the right of petition — a union in conformity with the will of 
God, not in contempt of his authority — a union that shall 
be regarded as a common blessing, not held as a boon from 
the South, ever ready to be withdrawn as a penalty for the 
discharge of moral and political duties. 

May Almighty God in mercy preserve the friends of eman- 
cipation, from the sin andfolly of even hazarding the Union, 
by the slightest encroachment on the constitutional rights of' 
the South, and may He give them grace to maintain their owa 
rights in defiance of every menace. 



APPENDIX. 

THE A M I S T A D CASE. 

Ix the month of July, 1339, the Spanish schooner Amis* 
tad, Ramen Ferrer, master, sailed from Havana for Porto 
Principe, a place in the island of Cuba, about 100 leases 
distant, having on board as passengers, Don Pedro Montes, 
and Jose Ruiz, with 51 fresh African negroes, just brought 
from Lemboko as slaves. After being out four days, the 
negroes rose in the night, killed the captain and cook, and 
took possession of the vessel. The two sailors took the boat 
and went on shore, and Montes was required, on pain of 
death, to navigate the vessel to Africa. He steered east- 
wardly in the day time, but put about at night, and thus kept 
near the American coast, until the 26th of August, when they 
were taken by Lieut. Gedney, United States Navy, and car* 
ried into New-London. Judge Judson, of the United States 
( 'ourt, was sent for, and after a short examination of the two 
Spaniards, and a Creole cabin boy, without a word of com- 
munication with the negroes, tha latter were bound over for 
trial as pirates, although their utrcr ignorance of any Euro- 
pean language, and the admission of Ruiz himself showed 
that they were fresh Africans, and of course could not be 
slaves by the laws of Spain. At this time, it was the united 
voice of the public press and of public men, that as a matter 
of course, they would either be tried and executed here, or 
delivered up to the Spaniards. 

The abolitionists saw that these men had only exercised 
the natural right of self-defence, justified by all laws, and 
that justice to these strangers and a regard for the honor of 
law itself, required a vigorous effort to turn the tide of public 
opinion and judicial prejudice. Messrs. S. S. Jocelyn, J. Lea- 
vitt and Lewis Tappan, were appointed a committee to take 
charge of the case, who immediately engaged as counsel, Setli 
P. Staples and Theodore Sedgwick, Esqrs., of New- York, 
and R. S. Laid win, of New-Haven.. Our hands were strength- 
ened by a letter from Mr. Adams, which was published in 
the- newspapers, asserting the -right of the negroes to act as 
they did, and declaring that the vessel and its contents were 
theirs by the law of nations. 

On the 6th of September, M. Calderon de la Barca,.the 
Spanish Minister, demanded the immediate delivery of the 
schooner and cargo to Ruiz and Montes, under the treaty, 



96 APPENDIX. 

and that " the negroes be sent to be tried by the proper tri- 
bunal" in Cuba. He thus establishes the distinction between 
the " negroes" and the " cargo." He urges as reasons why 
the negroes should be given up, " the law of nations in a case 
analagous," and also that " the crime in question is one of 
those, which, if permitted to pass unpunished, would endan- 
ger the internal tranquility and safety of the Island of Cuba, 
where the citizens of the United States not only carry on a 
considerable trade, but where they possess territorial proper- 
ties which they cultivate with the labor of African slaves;" 
and further, that if the negroes " should be condemned by 
the incompetent tribunal that has taken upon itself to try 
them as pirates and assassins, the infliction of capital punish- 
ment here would not be attended with the salutary effects," 
and " the satisfaction due to the public mind would not be 
accorded." And as a further inducement, he promises that 
his Government " would immediately accord the extradition 
p£ any slaves that might take refuge there from the southern 
States." 

On the 5th of September, the United States Attorney for 
the District of Connecticut, W. S. Holabird, Esq., wrote to 
Mr. Forsyth, the Secretary of State, apprising him that 
" the Marshal of this District has in his custody the Spanish 
schooner Amistad, with her cargo and 41 blacks, supposed 
to be slaves." The blacks " are now in jail at New-Haven," 
and " the schooner and cargo have been libelled by Lieut. 
Gedney" for salvage. Here again is the distinction between 
the "cargo" and the "blacks." He says also, "the next 
term of our Circuit Court sits on the 17th instant, at which 
time I suppose it will be my duty to bring them to trial, 
unless they are in some other way disposed of." To this Mr. 
Forsyth replies, Sept. 11, that the Spanish Minister has 
claimed the " vessel, cargo, and blacks on board, as Spanish 
property," and directing Mr. Attorney to " take care that no 
proceeding of your Circuit Court, or of any other judicial tri- 
bunal, places the vessel, cargo, or slaves beyond the control 
of the Federal Executive." M. Calderon had not demand- 
ed the " blacks" as " property" at all, but as criminals ; and 
his successor, M. Argaiz, Nov. 26, says his complaint is that 
" the public vengeance has not been satisfied, for be it recollect- 
ed that the legation of Spain does not demand the delivery of 
slaves, but of assassins.'" In the face of this declaration of 
the legation, Mr. Forsyth instructs Mr. Holabird that the 
blacks are claimed as " property," and the whole proceeding 
of our Government is based upon this false assumption. 



APPENDIX. 97 

On the 9th Sept., Mr. Holabird writes to Mr. Forsyth that 
he thinks the United States Courts have no jurisdiction over 
the alleged crime, as it was committed on board a Spanish 
vessel on the high seas, and he eagerly asks " whether there 
are no treaty stipulations with the Government of Spain that 
would authorize our Government to deliver them up to the 
Spanish authorities ; and if so, whether it could be done be- 
fore our Court sits V The Executive, however, dared not 
take the responsibility of sending these MEN beyond seas 
by a mere order, without warrant or form of law. 

Mr. Holabird writes again, Sept. 21, to Mr. Forsyth, thai 
" with a view of carrying out your instructions," that is, to 
prevent " any other judicial tribunal" from placing the ne- 
groes " beyond the control of the Federal Executive," he 
had " filed a libel in the District Court, against the negroes, 
in behalf of the United States, averring" that they had been 
claimed by the Spanish Government as property, and also 
that they had been " imported in violation of the law of 1819," 
prohibiting the slave trade, and praying the court to " decree 
that the Marshal hold them subject to the order of the Fed- 
eral Executive on the one claim or the other." The Circuit 
Court instructed the Grand Jury that they had no jurisdic- 
tion over the alleged crime. The Committee then caused a 
writ of habeas corpus to be issued from the Circuit Court, to 
know by what authority the negroes were detained by the 
Marshal, but Judge Thompson, after full argument, decided 
that, since these persons had been libelled as property, the 
question of their right to liberty could not be examined on 
habeas corpus — thus subjecting the Common Law and habeas 
corpus to the paramount authority of the Civil Law in Ad- 
miralty process, on a claim of human beings as property — 
a virtual prostration of the great bulwark of personal liberty, 
the habeas corpus. 

The hearing of the case in the District Court was adjourn- 
ed to the November term, and afterwards to January. On 
the 5th Nov., Mr. Holabird again writes to Mr. Forsyth that 
" if there is any action to be had on the part of our Govern- 
ment, with reference to the blacks, it is important that we 
be informed, either officially or unofficially, before the session 
of the court." And again, Nov. 14, asking leave to employ 
assistant counsel because " my health is feeble, and if the 
matter is not disposed of by the Executive before our court sits, 
much is to be done." This proves beyond a doubt that there 
were all the while negotiations and consultations going on, 
" officially or unofficially," to see if some method could not 

G 



98 APPENDIX. 

be hit upon to. put these negroes in the power of their ene- 
mies, and satisfy " public vengeance" at Cuba, without wait- 
ing the slow and uncertain movement of the courts of law. 
But the risk was too great, of thus openly assuming the forms 
as well as powers of despotism. This is surprising too, in- 
asmuch as the Attorney General of the United States, Hon. 
Felix Grundy, had advised in the first stage of the proceed- 
ings, that the negroes were a part of the cargo, and that the 
proper mode of proceeding " would be for the President of 
the United States to issue his order, directed to the Marshal, 
in whose custody the vessel and cargo are, to deliver the 
same" including the negroes, to the order of the Spanish 
Minister ; and M. Argaiz says, Dec. 25, this opinion " was 
confidentially communicated to him at the Department of 
State on the 19th of November," and " he was assured had 
been adopted by the Cabinet." 

In the mean time, the Vigilant Committee on behalf of the 
negroes, had Messrs. Ruiz and Montes arrested in New- York,, 
on a civil suit for assault and false imprisonment on the high 
seas. This brought out a bitter complaint from. M. Argaiz, 
Oct. 22, which was answered by Mr. Forsyth instructing the 
United States Attorney for New- York, B. F. Butler, to offer 
them his "advice and aid if necessary, as to any measure 
which it may be proper for them to take to obtain their re- 
lease, and indemnity" for their arrest. Mr. Butler very pro- 
perly advised them that the only way to get out of prison 
was to give bail, but Ruiz declined to ftive bail, " for rea- 
sons of state," as he himself said in a note in the newspapers, 
or as Mr. Butler informs Mr. Forsyth, November 18th, 
" under the hope that his deliverance might be effected 
through the intervention of the Government of the United 
States," but finding this could not be done, bail was finally 
given. The suit, however, was never brought to trial. The 
transaction, however, exhibited the spirit of the Executive. 
M. Argaiz writes to Mr. Forsyth, Dec. 25, " The undersign- 
ed would not have troubled the Government of the Union 
with his urgent demands, if the two Spaniards (who as the 
Secretary of State, in his note of the 12th, says 'were found 
in this distressing and perilous situation by officers of the 
United States, who moved by sympathetic foelii^gs which sub- 
sequently became national') had not been the victims of an 
intrigue, as accurately shown by JSIr. Forsytli, in the confer- 
ence which he had with the undersigned on the 21st of Oc- 
tober last." And Mr. Forsyth, in the letter above referred 
to, Dec. 12, assures M. Argaiz that " with the single excep- 
tion of the vexatious detention to which Messrs. Ruiz and 



APPENDIX* 99 

Montes have been subjected in consequence of the civil suit 
instituted against them, all the proceedings in the matter, on 
the part both of the executive and judicial branches of the 
matter, have had their foundation in the assumption that those 
persons alone were the parties aggrieved, and that their claim 
to the surrender of the property was founded in fact and in 
justice." 

All this, however, does not satisfy the Spanish Minister, 
who had claimed, Nov.. 26, that it was the duty of the Gov- 
ernment to have acted " gubernativamente" by Executive 
mandate ; and declared that it " must be the opinion of the 
Cabinet," that the Government possessed already " the ne- 
cessary powers to act giibernativatnente," and " without await- 
ing the decision of* any court." And he demands such action 
as a proper " proof of the scrupulousness and respect with 
which this nation fulfills treaties ;" and he threatens that " if, 
contrary to this hope, the decision should not be as the under- 
signed asks, he can only declare the General Government of 
the Union responsible for all and every consequence which 
the delay may produce." No rebuke was returned for this 
insolence, but when, afterwards, Jan. 20, 1841, the British 
Ambassador, Mr. Fox, in obedience to the orders of his Gov- 
ernment, wrote to Mr. Forsyth, courteously expi-essing his 
" hope" that the President would " find himself empowered 
to take such measures for the Africans as shall secure to 
them their liberty, to which without doubt they are by law 
entitled," the Secretary tartly replies, that the communica- 
tion is received " as an evidence of the benevolence of Her 
Majesty's Government — under which aspect alone it could be 
entertained by the Government of the United States." 

In his letter of Dec. 12, Mr. Forsyth had assured M. Ar- 
gaiz that while the delays and proceedings in the court6 were 
" beyond the control of this Department," at the same time 
" it is not apprehended that they will affect the course which 
the Government of the United States may think fit ultimate- 
ly to adopt." What this hint was designed to assure M, 
Argaiz of, we could probably better understand if we had 
minutes of the " confidential" conversations so often referred 
to in the correspondence. As it is, we can only infer what 
was meant, from what was done. Dec. 30, M. Argaiz writes 
to Mr. Forsyth, referring to " a conversation which I had 
with you on the morning of the day before yesterday," in 
which. " you mentioned the possibility that the Court of Con- 
necticut might, at its meeting on the 7th of January next, 
declare itself incompetent, or order the restitution of the 

L.trfC. 



100 APPENDIX. 

schooner Amistad, with her cargo, and the negroes found on 
board of her;" and saying that as " these negroes have de- 
clared before the Court of Connecticut that they are not 
slaves, and that the best means of testing the truth of their 
allegation is to bring them before the courts of Havana," and 
he is " at the same time desirous to free the Government of 
the United States from the trouble of keeping said negroes 
in prison ;" he asks as a final and " most particular favor," 
that our Government would place the negroes " at the dis- 
posal of the Captain General of the Island of Cuba, by 
transporting them thither in a ship belonging to the United 
States." 

On the 6th of Jan. 1840, Mr. Forsyth replies, that he is 
instructed by the President to state that " in the event of the 
decision of the Circuit Court of Connecticut being such as 
is anticipated," he will " cause the necessary orders to be 
given for a vessel of the United States to be held in readi- 
ness to receive the negroes and convey them to Cuba ;" and 
that " the President has the more readily acceded" to the 
request, that the negroes " may have an opportunity of prov- 
ing the truth of their allegation" that they are not slaves, 
" before the proper tribunals of the island." A most benev- 
olent motive for sending persons out of the country ! 

On the same day, Mr. Forsyth wrote to Mr. Holabird that 
" the President has, agreeably to your suggestion, taken in 
connection with the request of the Spanish Minister, ordered 
a vessel to be in readiness to receive the negroes," as " the 
presumption is that the court will decree" that " they are to 
remain in the custody of the Marshal to be delivered over" 
— and requiring him to have all the documents " ready to be 
handed over to the commander." The requisition upon the 
Navy Department is dated Jan. 2, and requires the vessel 
" to be ordered to anchor off the port of New-Haven," not in 
the harbor, " as early as the 10th of January," and there 
await her final instructions. The Grampus, Lieut. Paine, 
sailed under sealed orders from the Navy- Yard at Brooklyn. 
By letter of Jan. 7, Lieut. Paine was directed to " place 
himself in communication" with Mr. Holabird, that " he may 
receive the earliest if/formation of the decision of the court." 
All this, and many other ciixumstances, evidently point to 
an understanding among the parties with regard to " the 
course which the Government" was now " ultimately to 
adopt." No letter of Mr. Holabird containing the " sugges- 
tion" about sending the negroes away in a national vessel, 
appears among the printed documents, and it must therefore 



APPENDIX. 101 

have been made in the course of that " confidential" inter- 
course, carried on " officially or unofficially," which is so 
often alluded to. The friends of the Africans wtere not in- 
sensible to the danger of some secret and sudden movement, 
and therefore took the best measures in their power, by 
sleepless vigilance, and by providing fleet horses at hand, to 
baffle any such design. That these fears were not ground- 
less, will be seen by a letter from Mr. Holabird to Mr. For- 
syth, written Jan. 11, during the progress of the trial at New- 
Haven, in which he points out an error in " the Executive 
warrant to the Marshal of this District for the delivery of the 
negroes of the Amistad," in using the term " Circuit Court" 
for " District Court." He says, " should the jiretcnded friends 
of the negroes obtain 1 a writ of habeas corpus, the Marshal 
could not justify under that warrant." And he proceeds, 
" The Marshal wishes me to inquire whether, in the event 
of a decree by the court requiring him to release the negroes, 
or in case of an appeal by the adverse party, it is expected 
the Executive warrant will be executed V What expecta- 
tion does this point to 1 This was despatched by an express 
messenger, with such haste, lest perchance this clerical blun- 
der should defeat the designs of the Government, that the 
reply of Mr. Forsyth is dated the following day, and correct- 
ing the mistake, and instructing him, " by direction of the 
President, that, if the decision of the court is such as is anti- 
cipated, the order of the President is to be carried into exe- 
cution, unless an appeal shall actually have been interposed. 
You are not to take it for granted that it will be interposed." 
This is a plain intimation that it was intended to hurry the 
negroes out of the jurisdiction of the court on the instant the 
expected decision of the court should be given. The fol- 
lowing is the " Executive Order," which Mr. Van Buren 
should have always before his eyes, and posterity should 
cause it to be graven on his tomb, to rot only with his memory. 

" The Marshal of the United States for the District of 
Connecticut, will deliver over to Lieut. John J. Paine, of 
the United States Navy, and aid in conveying on board the 
schooner Grampus, under his command, all the negroes, late 
of the Spanish schooner Amistad, in his custody, under pro- 
cess now pending before the Circuit Court of the United 
States for the District of Connecticut. For so doing this 
order will be his warrant. 

" Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, this 
7th day of January, A. D. 1840. " M. VAN BUREN. 

" By the President : 

"John Forsyth, Secretary of State." 



102 APPENDIX. 

The unexpected decision of Judge Judson in favor of the 
negroes, declaring them to be manifestly fresh from Africa, 
and so erititled to their liberty even under the laws of Spain, 
defeated all these plans, and drove the Government to the 
necessity of appealing to the Supreme Court of the United 
States for a final decision, and of supporting this large com- 
pany in custody at a vast expense, not yet publicly ascer- 
tained, all which was cheerfully undertaken, rather than yield 
to the demands of justice and mercy to the strangers. The 
Committee took the best methods in their power to give these 
benighted heathen such instruction as they were capable of 
receiving ; and the most thorough preparations were made 
for the final trial, which took place at Washington, at the 
term of the Supreme Court for January 1S41. By the bless- 
ing of Heaven upon the efforts of the counsel, Mr. Baldwin, 
and the venerable John Quincy Adams, aided by the light 
thrown upon the public mind, the Supreme Court confirmed 
the decision of the lower tribunal, so far as to declare the 
negroes perfectly FREE. " Thy prey hath escaped thee !" 

In the following autumn, so many as survived were sent, 
by public charity, to Siei-ra Leone, on the coast of Africa, 
and within a moderate distance of their own homes. Laus 
Deo. 

THE CREOLE CASE. 

On the 27lh of October, 1841, the brig Creole, of Rich- 
mond, a regular slaver in the American slave trade, sailed 
from Hampton Roads for New-Orleans, " with a cargo of 
slaves and tobacco," the slaves about 135 in number. On 
Sunday evening, Nov. 7, the captain hove to, expecting to 
make Abaco reef next morning. About 9 o'clock P. M., a 
rising took place of a part of the slaves, who soon obtained 
complete possession of the vessel, having in the struggle 
wounded the captain and killed a man named Hewell. They 
retained the possession, and compelled a passenger named 
Merritt to navigate them to Nassau, where she arrived, in 
possession of the negroes, on the 9th. The American Con- 
sul, John F. Bacon, immediately went on board, and placed 
the passenger named Merritt in command, ordering him to 
keep the American colors set. He also applied to the Gov- 
ernor for an armed force to prevent any of the " slaves" from 
landing " until further investigations can be made." In 
compliance with this request, an officer with 20 black troops 
was sent on board the vessel, and an official notification sent 
to the Consul, 1. That the courts of the island had no juris- 



APPENDIX. 103 

diction of the alleged offences, and 2. That inasmuch as it 
was charged that the crime of murder had been committed 
■on the high seas, an examination would be had and all par- 
ties that should appear to be implicated in the crime " should 
be detained here until reference could be made to the Sec- 
retary of State," in England, to decide whether they could 
be delivered over to the American Government. The ex- 
amination was not concluded until Friday, about 12 o'clock, 
when the mate in command said he had no more witnesses 
to produce, and 19 of the negroes, being all that were iden- 
tified as having taken any part in the capture or control of 
the vessel, were sent on shore as '.prisoners, the guard of 
troops withdrawn, and the rest of "the negroes told that they 
were no longer under restraint, but were free to go ashox-e, 
or where they pleased. The Attorney General of the island 
says that the mate, Gifford, informed him that " it was not 
his desire to detain on board of his vessel one of the persons 
(shipped as slaves) who did not wish to remain, and that they 
had his free permission to quit hei'e, if they thought proper 
to do so ; but that he was apprehensive that the persons in 
the surrounding boats" (a large number of which were in the 
neighborhood, to convey and welcome the strangers to the 
shore) " would, as soon as the military were withdrawn, board 
his vessel andjfommit acts of robbery and other violence." 
To this, Mr. Attorney replied, as he says, that he " had no 
instructions to interfere" between him and "the persons" 
called slaves, and that as to the people in the boats, " pre- 
cautions had been taken against" violence, and " he might 
rely upon being protected by the authorities against any vio- 
lations of the law." He declares that the departure of the 
negroes from the Creole " was their own free and voluntary 
act, sanctioned by the express consent of the mate, and that 
neither myself nor any other of the authorities of the colony 
then on board interfered in the slightest manner to induce 
them to take that step." All the colored persons immedi- 
ately rushed into the boats and went ashore, except four or 
five of the women. On the 18th, a vessel sailed for Jamaica, 
with 50 passengers, the greater part being of those who 
landed from the Creole, and on the 19th, the Creole sailed 
for New-Orleans, where she arrived Dec. 2d. 

The American Consul protested to the Governor against 
the pi-oceedings by which the negroes had been allowed to 
go ashore. The ground of his complaint is thus stated : 

" These slaves, as I view the case, while they were under 
the American flag, and regularly cleared from one slavehold- 



104 APPENDIX. 

ing State to another, within the United States, were as much 
a portion of the cargo of the said brig, as the tobacco and 
other articles on board ; and whether on the high seas, or 
in an English p>ort, does not change their character ; and that 
her Majesty's Government had not the right to interfere with 
or control the officers of an American vessel, so circumstan- 
ced, in such a course as might be necessary and propef to 
secure such property from being lost to the owners." 

This is the American claim, then, that the condition of 
• slavery, which was fixed upon these persons in Virginia re- 
mained so attached to them in a British port, that their mas- 
ter or owner had a right to demand the aid of British author- 
ities to re-establish his authority, and then a right to use, in 
such British port, any means, of force ©r fraud, necessary to 
" secure such property" from the peculiar perils of these 
waters. 

That both force and fraud were planned by the Americans, 
and prevented by the British authorities, is plain from the 
documents. Capt. W. Woodside, of Brunswick, Maine, 
master of the bark Louisa, then at Nassau, deposes that on 
the 13th, at the time the Creole was surrounded by boats 
with colored persons, none of whom were allowed to come 
on board until the 19 prisoners were secured, " that at about 
12 o'clock a boat with five white men came^Apng side, and 
were ordered off, though this deponent informed the officers 
that they had been sent by the American Consul to supply 
the place of those on shore." The Consul, in his letter to 
Mr. Webster, says, " I was informed by respectable persons 
that an attempt would be made to liberate the slaves by 
force." The mate also informed him that " the crew were 
greatly intimidated," and in consequence of this, " a mate 
and four American seamen volunteered to go on board, and 
proceeded to the brig at my i~equest." This was the aspect 
of the transaction officially presented to the American Gov- 
ernment, and used by it as the basis of an application to the 
British Government for redress and indemnity. But it so 
happened that the cargo of slaves was insured, and in the 
polioy there was a guaranty by the insured against mutiny 
of the slaves. For the purpose therefore, of exonerating 
the vessel, and of charging the insurers, as well as to secure 
the freight on the lost cargo, another pretext was made, at 
New-Orleans, by Gifford as acting master, and the crew and 
passengers, which tells the whole story about the " five white 
men," sent by the American Consul, "to supply the place 
of those on shore," and shows the nature of the " interfer- 
ence" which was afterwards the ground of complaint. 



APPENDIX. 105 

[See Senate Documents, 27th Congress, 2d Session, No. 
51, pp. 44, 45.] 

By reference to the above document it will be seen that 
it was the not making a distinction between the boats that 
hovered around the Creole at the moment of closing the 
examination^ the not keeping off the blacks and letting on 
the whites, the refusal to countenance and aid this CON- 
SPIRACY, which constitutes the head and front of the "in- 
terference" by the British authorities. After the negroes 
were landed, the Attorney General sent to the brig for the 
baggage of the "passengers," which was finally taken by an 
officer of the customs, the mate protesting that both the ne- 
groes and their clothing were the propejty of their masters. 
The captain then wished to sell some of his provisions, and 
was told that he might, if he would enter his vessel at the 
Custom-House, and enter the negroes as passengers, which 
he declined ! 

The news reached Washington on the 15th December, and 
produced the greatest excitement in Congress. On the 22d 
the case was brought forward in the Senate, by Mr. Barrow, 
in connection with a memorial of the owners of the Herme- 
za, a slaver that was shipwrecked the year before, and the 
slaves carried to Nassau and allowed to enjoy their liberty. 
It was debated by Messrs. Barrow, Calhoun, King, Preston 
and Rives, all slaveholders, not one northern Senator saying 
a word ! Mr. King said, " If such outrages continue, noth- 
ing could prevent a collision ; and unless the British Gov- 
ernment should retrace her steps, war must inevitably ensue." 
Mr. Calhoun hoped the citizens would " know what protec- 
tion this Government could extend to their property, and if 
we cannot obtain justice, every man with an American heart 
will be ready to r-aise his hand against oppression." Mr. 
Preston " did not cpnsider it a case of war." He said, " the 
British Government had fallen into new hands, and there 
was some reason to believe that the new Ministry would re- 
verse the former decision respecting the seizure of slaves." 
Mr. Barrow said, " the people of the South would not sub- 
mit to British interpretation of the laws of nations, making 
a distinction between slaves and goods ;" and that " if these 
contemptible British subjects at Nassau are permitted to go 
on in this way, seizing by force of arms and liberating slaves 
belonging to American citizens, the South would be com- 
pelled to fit out an armament and destroy those towns." Mr. 
Rives " was opposed to this premature discussion." The 
voice of the Senate had been given by " the unanimous vote 



106 APPENDIX. 

on die resolutions respecting the case of the Enterprise." 
These gentlemen did not advert to the fact that it is not 
British policy that creates the difficulty, but the British law, 
and that for England to retrace her steps in this matter, she 
must first destroy her Constitution. And yet it goes out un- 
contradicted, that unless she emasculate the habeas corpus, 
we will wage war against her. 

On the 10th of January, the subject was brought up again, 
by Mr. Calhoun, who offered a resolution calling upon the 
President for information respecting the Creole, " the mur- 
dering of a passenger, the wounding of the captain and 
mate by the slaves on board, and the occurrences afterwards," 
<&c, with his opinion as to what ought to be done to "redress 
the wrong done to the American flag." No northern Sena- 
tor had a suggestion to make. 

The next day, when the resolution came up regularly for 
consideration, the Senate was thrown into a paroxysm, by a 
motion of Mr. Porter, of Michigan, to substitute the word 
*' persons" for "slaves" as more conformable to the Consti- 
tution. Calhoun, in a tone of imperiousness, demanded the 
object of the motion. It could be with no other object than 
to deny the rights of the South in regard to their slaves, and 
he should like to know if there was more than one man on 
that floor who held such views. Archer, an^ Berrien, and 
King, and Preston followed, in the same strain. Preston 
denied that slaves were persons, in any sense ; they were 
property, and to be treated as property, and he regretted 
that the fathers of the Constitution had been so fastidious in 
avoiding the term slaves. Porter remained firm, and mar- 
velled at the sudden discovery that the language of the Con- 
stitution was a firebrand; but finally, seeing himself sup- 
ported by not |a single northern Senator, he unfortunately 
yielded to the entreaties of his venerable colleague, Gover- 
nor Woodbridge, and withdrew his motion. So, the resolu- 
tion was adopted, unanimously. 

The President replied, Jan. 20, communicating the docu- 
ments received, and saying that the Secretary of State was 
to prepare a despatch to our Minister at London " without 
delay." Some remarks wore again made by the slavehold- 
ers, no northern Senator saying a word. On the 18th of 
Feb., the subject was a?ain introduced, by the slaveholders, 
in connection with the claims on Mexico, no northern Sena- 
tor offering a word. On the of Feb., Mr. Walker, of 

Mississippi, moved another resolution of inquiry, which was 
adopted no northern Senator saying a word. The President, 



APPENDIX, 107 

in reply, communicated Mr. Webster's letter of instructions 
to Mr. Everett, our Minister at London, concerning this 
case. This letter was read, and called forth the most ecsta- 
tic eulogiums from the slaveholding Senators, no northern 
Senator saying a word ! 

Mr. Webster's letter next requires to be considered. It 
bears date Jan. 29, 1S42, and after a brief recital of the facts, 
says, " The British Government cannot but see that this 
case, as presented in these papers, is one calling loudly for 
redress." He says, the slaves are "recognized as property 
by the Constitution of the United States in those States in 
which slavery exists.' 1 It would be difficult for Mr. Web- 
ster to substantiate this assertion. He says it was "the 
plain and obvious duty of the authorities at Nassau" to assist 
the Consul "in putting an end to the captivity of the master 
and crew," [a full admission that they were brought to Nas- 
sau in "captivity" to their masters, the negroes,] which they 
■did — " restoring to them the control of the vessel," which 
they did — " and enabling them to resume their voyage," — 
which they did — " and to take the mutineers and murderers 
to their own country, to answer for their crimes before the 
proper tribunal." This last they did not do, and our own 
Government had just set an example in the case of the Amis- 
tad " mutineers and murderers." Where, then, is the com- 
plaint % However, Mr. Webster says, "if the facts turn out 
as stated," in the papers sent, " this Government thinks it a 
clear case for indemnification," on the ground that the au- 
thorities "did actually interfere to set free the slaves, and to 
enable them to disperse themselves beyond the reach of 
their owners." We have seen exactly what this interfer- 
ence was. But Mr. Webster asks, " What right had the 
British authorities to inquire into the cargo of the vessel, or 
the condition of the persons on board ] These persons 
might be slaves for life ; they might be slaves for a term of 
years, under a system of apprenticeship; they might be 
bound to service by rheir own voluntary act ; they might be 
in confinement for crimes committed; they might be prison- 
ers of war ; or they might be free. How could the British 
authorities Took into and decide any of these questions 1 Or, 
indeed, what duty or power, according to the principles of 
national intercourse, had they to inquire at all V' To this 
it might be replied, that they did not attempt to inquire, but 
let each one decide and act for himself, refusing to allow one 
part of the persons on board to exercise violence in depriv- 
ing the other class of liberty. Mr. Webster further refers 



108 APPENDIX. 

to Mr. Calhoun's resolutions, so called, in the Senate in 1840, 
as " resolutions unun'unouslij adopted by that body," and re- 
quires Mr. Everett, in all his " communications with Her 
Majesty's Government," to "seek to impress it with a full 
conviction of the dangerous importance to the peace of the two 
countries, of occurrences of this kind, and the delicate nature 
of the questions to which they give rise." In other words, 
he was to hint significantly towards a threat of war, on ac- 
count of these slaves. 

There is an important authority against this claim, that 
has not been noticed in the whole of this controversy. It is 
an official opinion given Dec. 6, 1331; on requisition of the 
Secretary of State, by Mr. Taney, then Attorney General, 
but now Chief Justice of the United States. It originated 
in an application of a Mr. Brooks, "to ascertain whether the 
right of property in a slave, employed as a seaman, on board 
of a British merchantman, would be protected by the Gov- 
ernment of the United States." Mr. Taney says, 

" The laws of the several States, made in the exercise of 
their constitutional powers, are unquestionably a part of the 
laws of this country, to the extent of the territory on which 
they operate. If, therefore, by the laws of any of the States, 
a slave becomes free as soon as he is brought within the 
limits of the State ; and a slave belonging to a British sub- 
ject, and employed as a seaman on board a British merchant 
vessel, is found- within the limits of the State, and is there 
taken by the State authorities from the possession of his own- 
er, and declared to be free, the General Government is un- 
der no obligation to interfere in behalf of the master, and he 
has no right to call on the United States to support him in 
his claim of property. It is, perhaps, unnecessary now to 
inquire whether the United States could by treaty, control 
the several States in the exercise of this power. I think 
they could not. But the decision of that question is not ma- 
terial in the present state of things; for there is no conflict 
between the stipulations in the treaty and the laws of the 
several States which forbid the introduction of slaves within 
their limits, and declare that persons of that description, 
when introduced, shall be free." 

But Mr. Webster concedes away his whole case, when he 
says, 

"If, indeed, without unfriendly interference, and notwith- 
standing the fulfilment of all their duties of comity and as- 
sistance by these authories, the master of the vessel could not 
retain the persons, nor prevent their escape, then it would be a 



APPENDIX. 109 

•different question altogether, whether resort could be had to 
British tribunals, or the power of the Government in any of 
its branches to compel their apprehension and restoration." 

It was the withdrawal of the assistance of the British au- 
thorities that disabled the owners from preventing the escape 
of the negroes. An able article was published in the Vir- 
ginia papers, written by Conway Robinson, Esq., an emi- 
nent lawyer of that State, proving from the decisions of 
British Courts, and particularly from the great case of Forbes 
vs. Cochrane, where Judge Helroyd laid down the law thus 
— " The law of slavery is a law in invitmn [against the Avill 
of the subject,] and when a party gets out of the territory 
where it prevails, and out of the power of his master, and 
gets under the protection of another power, without any 
wrongful act done by the party giving that protection, the right 
of the master, which is founded on the municipal law of the 
particular place only, does not continue." 

Of the multitude of able and eloquent comments of news- 
papers on Mr. Webster's letter, space is afforded only to a 
single extract from the London Times : 

" We do not doubt that he feels the difficulty of his task — 
we believe he is alive to the audacity of requiring that Eng- 
lish magistrates should administer American law on English 
territory. His tone is not that of a man who thinks himself 
in the right. But he finds it necessary to avoid drawing 
down on his own head and that of the American Executive 
all that raving of Mr. Calhoun and his friends which at pre- 
sent finds a more innocuous vent in the direction of Great 
Britain. And with this view he has had to write a letter 
which shall have about it enough display of argument, and 
menace, to satisfy these warmer spirits, without absolutely 
closing the door against reconciliation, or palpably making a 
fool of himself in the eyes of the British Minister. If these 
are his objects, his letter deserves much credit for the ingen- 
uity with which he has accomplished them. In the first he 
seems to have been completely successful. " Mr. Walker 
expressed his gratitude at the tone and principle of the in- 
structions. Mr. Calhoun had heard the documents read with 
great pleasure. The argument occupied the whole ground, 
and coming from the source it did, it would put, he hoped, 
an end to this dangerous and unpleasant controversy."- — 
Judging from the cogency of Mr. Webster's arguments, as 
they appear to us, we can only comprehend this excess of 
satisfaction in those in whose behalf they are adduced, upon 
the supposition that Messrs. Calhoun and Co. are sharp 



HO APPENDIX. 

enough to see how the real merits of the matter stand, and 
are actually surprised to find how much can be said for them;- 
like the winner in a famous law suit, from whom the speech 
of* his own able counsel is said to have elicited the incautious 
ejaculation, that ' he had never known he was such an hon- 
est man before.' Of this we wish Mr. Webster joy." 

The facility with which Mr. Webster speaks of Madison 
Washington, and his associates as " mutineers and murder- 
ers," might well feel rebuked by the remarks of Chief Jus- 
tice Marshall, in the case of Thomas Nash, alias Robbins, 
an impressed seaman, who was demanded of our Govern- 
ment, while Jay's treaty was in force, on a charge of mur- 
der. " The act," he said, " of impressing an American, is an 
act of lawless violence. The confinement on board a vessel 
is a continuance of that violence, and an additional outrage. 
Death committed within the United States, in resisting such 
violence, would not have been murder, and the person giving 
the wound could not have been treated as a murderer. — 
Thomas Nash was only to have been delivered up to justice 
on such evidence as.' had the fact been committed in the United 
States, would have been sufficient to have induced his com- 
mitment and trial for murder.' " 

Mr. Webster's affirmation that slaves are treated as pro- 
perty, by the Federal Government,, in the States, guarded 
and almost deceptive as it is, is yet palpably contradicted by 
the uniform decisions of Congress with regard to all claims 
of payment for slaves who have been impressed or otherwise 
brought into the public service, and killed or lost. The case 
of Mariguy D. Autei'ive, which was before Congress almost 
ten years, and finally quashed in 6828, is well known to Mr. 
Webster, and is conclusive on this head. 

The case of the Creole was brought into the negotiation 
between Mr. Webster and Lord Ashburton, which resulted 
in the treaty of Washington. There is no record of these 
negotiations known to the world, except some letters, which 
appear to have been written after the whole business was 
settled, and written on a mutual understanding that they 
were written for the " outside people." Mr. Webster's let- 
ter on the Creole bears date Aug. 1, 1S42. It is long and 
ingenious, but the- point which he elaborates with the great- 
est care, is, " that by the comity of the law of nations, and 
the practice of modern times, merchant vessels entering open 
ports of other nations for the- purposes of trade, are presumed 
to be allowed to bring with them, and to retain for their pro- 
tection and government, the jurisdiction and laws of their 



APPENDIX. HI 

own country.'* Hence he infers that persons on board aia 
American ship, being slaves while on the high seas, are also 
slaves in a British port, although they would be free, as he 
admits, if they were to touch the land. While elaborately 
constructing this argument, he admits what seems to us to. 
deprive it of all value to him, namely, that a State may de- 
declare such of its laws as it pleases to extend over its own, 
waters. Now we take it to be distinctly the law of England 
that slavery can exist no more in its waters than on its. solid 
land ; and we think an attempt to make a distinction between 
the two is utterly unwarranted and futile. According to Mr. 
Webster's argument, an American vessel might retain her 
slaves at London Bridge. What E nglishman, knowing slaves 
to be in her, would not immediately apply for a writ of Ha- 
beas Corpus, and triumphantly effect their liberation 1 

The most surprising part of the whole is its effect upon 
the British Ambassador, as disclosed by the- tone in which 
Lord Ashburton replies to it. He entirely evades the argu- 
ment, with an appearance of timidity for which we are sure 
there could have been no grounds; while the absence of any 
adequate enunciation of British law, or declaration of British 
feeling, in reference to freedom, gives a suspicious and un- 
satisfactory aspect to the following passage : 

" In the meantime, I can engage that instructions shall be given to the 
Governors of Her Majesty's colonies on the southern borders of the United 
States to execute their own laws with careful attention to the wish of their 
Government to maintain good neighborhood, and that there shall be no offi- 
cious interference with American vessels driven by accident or by violence 
into those ports. The laws and duties of hospitality shall be executed ; and 
these seem neither to require nor to justify any further inquisition into the 
state of persons or things on board of vessels so situated, than may be indis- 
pensable to enforce the observance of the municipal law of the colony, and 
the proper regulation of its harbors and waters." 

This concession or pledge, excited the greatest dissatis- 
faction in England, was discussed with much earnestness and 
severity in both Houses of Parliament, and for a long time 
stood in the way of the legislation necessary for carrying out 
the treaty. 

In the American Senate, the debates on the ratification of 
the treaty show that this concession was deemed of great im- 
portance. The following extract from the speech of Mr. Cal- 
houn, may serve as a specimen of their exultation : 

"In the first place, the broad principles of the law of nations, on which be 
placed our right in his resolutions, have been clearly stated and conclusively 
vindicated in the very able letter of the Secretary of State, which has strength- 
ened our cause not a little, as well from its intrinsic merit as the quarter from 
which it comes. In the next place, we have an explicit recognition of the 
principles for which we contend, in the answer of Lord Ashburton, who ex- 
pressly says, that " on the great general principles affecting this case" (the 



112 



APPENDIX. 



Creole) " they do not differ ;" and that is followed by " an engagement that 
instructions shall be given to the Governors, 7 ' &c, as above. 

" This pledge was accepted by our Executive, accompanied by the express 
declaration of the President, through the Secretary of State. To all this it 
may be added-, that strong assurances are given by the British nego;iator, of 
his behef that a final arrangement may be made of the subject by positive 
stipulations in London. Such is the state in which the negotiation has left 
the sjjhject. 

" Here again he would repeat, that such stipulations in the treaty itself 
would have been preferable. But who can deny, when he compares the state 
of the facts, as they stood before and since the close of this negotiation, that 
we have gained — largely gained — in reference to this important subject ? 
Is there no difference, he would ask, between a stern and peremptory denial 
of our right, on the broad and the insulting ground assumed by Lord Palm- 
erston, and its explicit recognition by Lord Ashburton '! — none in the pledga 
that instructions slmuld be given to guard against the recurrence of such cases, 
and a positive denial that we had suffered no wrong or insult, nor had any 
right to complain? — none between a final closing of all negotiation, and 
a strong assurance of a final adjustment of the subject by satisfactory ar- 
rangement by treaty ? And would it be wise or prudent on our part to 
reject what has been gained, because all has not been ? As to himself 
he must say, that at the time he moved his resolutions, he little hoped, 
in the short space of two years, to obtain what has already been gained ; 
and that he regarded the prospect of a final and satisfactory adjustment, at 
no distant day, of this subject, so vital in its principles to bis constituents and 
the whole South, as far more probable than he then did this explicit recogni- 
tion of the principles for which he contended. In the mean time he felt as- 
sured the engagement given by the British negotiator would be fulfilled in 
good faith; and that the hazard of collision between the countries, and the 
disturbance of their peace and friendship, has passed away, as far as it de- 
pends on this dangerous subject. But if in this he should unfortunately be 
mistaken, we should stand on much more solid ground in defence of our rights, 
in consequence of what has been gained ; as there would then be superadded 
broken faith to the violation of the laws of nations." 

The sincerity of this exultation on the part of the slave- 
holders may be seen in the vote on the ratification of the 
treaty. Notwithstanding the determination declared by the 
press and by Senators, not to allow the boundary question to 
be settled without indemnity for the past and security for 
the future, in cases like that of the Creole, the treaty was 
ratified, as appears by the record. On the question to agree 
thereto, It was. decided in the affirmative : Yeas 39, nays 9. 

Those who voted in the affirmative are — 

Messrs. Archer, Barrow, Bates, Bayard, Berrien, Calhoun, 
Choate, Clayton, Crafts, Crittenden, Cuthbert, Dayton, 
Evans, Fulton, Graham, Henderson, Huntington, Kerr, 
King, Manguin, Merrick, Miller, Morehead, Phelps, Porter, 
Preston, Rives, Sevier, Simmons, Smith, of Indiana, Sprague, 
Tallmadge, Tappan, Walker, White, Woodbridge, Wood- 
bury, Wright, Young. 

Those who voted in the negative are — 

Messrs. Allen, Bagby, Benton, Buchanan, Conrad, Linn, 
Smith, of Connecticut, Sturgeon, Williams. 
























4 \ A 





































































LIBRARY OF CONGREsT 



"in mil i| Bui,/,,, mi j 
01 1836 945 2, 



: ■ ■ * ' * I 

','■" : -'■•'•■■ ■■ 

'■'■-, --- v '"•■'•' ,y "' 



1 ' i 
..•■>■■ 






■agn 
"IB 






